Related papers: You can hear the shape of a billiard table: Symbol…
The bounce spectrum of a polygonal billiard table is the collection of all bi-infinite sequences of edge labels corresponding to billiard trajectories on the table. We give methods for reconstructing from the bounce spectrum of a polygonal…
Dynamical billiards consist of a particle on a two-dimensional table, bouncing elastically off a boundary curve. The state of the system is given by two numbers: one describing the location along the curve where the bounce occurs, and…
Light propagation on a two-dimensional curved surface embedded in a three-dimensional space has attracted increasing attention as an analog model of four-dimensional curved spacetime in laboratory. Despite recent developments in modern…
We propose a physical model of speech to explain its precision and robustness. We begin by reducing the dynamics to the bare minimum of polygonal billiards. The symbolic stability of the billiard trajectories against variations in action…
Given a random map (T_1, T_2, T_3, T_4, p_1, p_2, p_3, p_4), we define a random billiard map on a surface of constant curvature (Euclidean plane, hyperbolic plane, or the sphere). The Liouville measure is invariant for this billiard map.…
We introduce a new class of billiard systems in the plane, with boundaries formed by finitely many arcs of confocal conics such that they contain some reflex angles. Fundamental dynamical, topological, geometric, and arithmetic properties…
We prove that there exists a residual set of (non-rational) polygons such the billiard flow is weakly mixing with respect to the Liouville measure (on the unit tangent bundle to the billiard). This follows, via a Baire category argument,…
A billiard is a dynamical system in which a particle alternates between motion in a straight line and specular reflection from a boundary. For billiards in non-convex areas bounded by segments of confocal quadrics are studied. The topology…
We consider classical dynamical properties of a particle in a constant gravitational force and making specular reflections with circular, elliptic or oval boundaries. The model and collision map are described and a detailed study of the…
The singular bifurcations in a dispersive billiard are discussed in terms of symbolic dynamics and is compared to an example of a bifurcation tree in a smooth potential. Possible generalizations to other smooth potentials are discussed.
From a geometric viewpoint, billiard trajectories and geodesics are related by mutual approximation results. In one direction, it is known that every geodesic curve in the boundary of a smooth convex body can be approximated by a sequence…
In standard (mathematical) billiards a point particle moves uniformly in a billiard table with elastic reflections off the boundary. We show that in transition from mathematical billiards to physical billiards, where a finite size hard…
We study, by numerical simulations and semi-rigorous arguments, a two-parameter family of convex, two-dimensional billiard tables, generalizing the one-parameter class of oval billiards of Benettin--Strelcyn [Phys. Rev. A 17, 773 (1978)].…
A general formula for the linearized Poincar\'e map of a billiard with a potential is derived. The stability of periodic orbits is given by the trace of a product of matrices describing the piecewise free motion between reflections and the…
We consider classical billiards on surfaces of constant curvature, where the charged billiard ball is exposed to a homogeneous, stationary magnetic field perpendicular to the surface. We establish sufficient conditions for hyperbolicity of…
We propose geometric tools that are suitable for studying the behavior of a billiard trajectory in a homogeneous force field. Two examples are considered: a vertical plane with an open top and with a parabolic or right angle boundary at the…
We consider a bimodal light field envelope propagating in a bulk medium characterized by competing cubic and quintic nonlinearities. The subfields are coupled by a cross-phase modulation term and experience effective attraction. We find…
Recently were introduced physical billiards where a moving particle is a hard sphere rather than a point as in standard mathematical billiards. It has been shown that in the same billiard tables the physical billiards may have totally…
Astute variations in the geometry of mathematical billiard tables have been and continue to be a source of understanding their wide range of dynamical behaviors, from regular to chaotic. Viewing standard specular billiards in the broader…
The connected configuration space of a so called cylindric billiard system is a flat torus minus finitely many spherical cylinders. The dynamical system describes the uniform motion of a point particle in this configuration space with…