Related papers: On pinned billiard balls and foldings
We give a new and elementary proof that the number of elastic collisions of a finite number of balls in the Euclidean space is finite. We show that if there are $n$ balls of equal masses and radii 1, and at the time of a collision between…
The problem of two interacting particles moving in a d-dimensional billiard is considered here. A suitable coordinate transformation leads to the problem of a particle in an unconventional hyperbilliard. A dynamical map can be readily…
We study a two-particle circular billiard containing two finite-size circular particles that collide elastically with the billiard boundary and with each other. Such a two-particle circular billiard provides a clean example of an…
The configuration manifold $M$ of a mechanical system consisting of two unconstrained rigid bodies in $\mathbb{R}^n$, $n\geq 1$, is a manifold with boundary (typically with singularities.) A complete description of the system requires…
We demonstrate that the free motion of any two-dimensional rigid body colliding elastically with two parallel, flat walls is equivalent to a billiard system. Using this equivalence, we analyze the integrable and chaotic properties of this…
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…
We obtain an upper bound of the number of collisions of any billiard trajectory in a polyhedral angle in terms of the minimal eigenvalue of a positive definite matrix which characterizes the angle. Elements of the matrix are scalar products…
We show that the complexity of the billiard in a typical polygon grows cubically and the number of saddle connections grows quadratically along certain subsequences. It is known that the set of points whose first n-bounces hits the same…
We introduce a new class of billiard-like system, ``bouncing outer billiards" which are 3-dimensional cousins of outer billiards of Neumann and Moser. We prove that bouncing outer billiard on a smooth convex body has at least four…
We study the dynamics of a bouncing coin whose motion is restricted to the two-dimensional plane. Such coin model is equivalent to the system of two equal masses connected by a rigid rod, making elastic collisions with a flat boundary. We…
We discuss various experiments on the time decay of velocity autocorrelation functions in billiards. We perform new experiments and find results which are compatible with an exponential mixing hypothesis, first put forward by [FM]: they do…
We define billiards in the context of sub-Finsler Geometry. We provide symplectic and variational (or rather, control theoretical) descriptions of the problem and show that they coincide. We then discuss several phenomena in this setting,…
While many dynamical systems of mechanical origin, in particular billiards, are strongly chaotic -- enjoy exponential mixing, the rates of mixing in many other models are slow (algebraic, or polynomial). The dynamics in the latter are…
We study the dynamics of billiard models with a modified collision rule: the outgoing angle from a collision is a uniform contraction, by a factor lambda, of the incident angle. These pinball billiards interpolate between a one-dimensional…
We consider a class of random billiards in a tube, where reflection angles at collisions with the boundary of the tube are random variables rather than deterministic (and elastic) quantities. We obtain a (non-standard) Central Limit Theorem…
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 study some dynamical properties of a classical time-dependent elliptical billiard. We consider periodically moving boundary and collisions between the particle and the boundary are assumed to be elastic. Our results confirm that although…
A body moves in a medium composed of noninteracting point particles; interaction of particles with the body is absolutely elastic. It is required to find the body's shape minimizing or maximizing resistance of the medium to its motion. This…
This paper explores two instances where dissipation plays a crucial role in curbing the unbounded energy growth of particles in time-dependent billiards. The first example involves an elliptical-like billiard with inelastic collisions…
We investigate a one-dimensional system of $N$ particles, initially distributed with random positions and velocities, interacting through binary collisions. The collision rule is such that there is a time after which the $N$ particles do…