Related papers: Weakly Mixing Polygonal Billiards
In this paper we show that, under certain generic conditions, billiards on ovals have only a finite number of periodic orbits, for each period, all non-degenerate and at least one of them is hyperbolic. Moreover, the invariant curves of two…
A planar polygonal billiard $\P$ is said to have the finite blocking property if for every pair $(O,A)$ of points in $\P$ there exists a finite number of ``blocking'' points $B_1, ..., B_n$ such that every billiard trajectory from $O$ to…
We show that for planar dispersing billiards the return times distribution is, in the limit, Poisson for metric balls almost everywhere w.r.t. the SRB measure. Since the Poincar\'e return map is piecewise smooth but becomes singular at the…
We study periodic billiard trajectories on a compact Riemannian manifold with boundary, by applying Morse theory to Lagrangian action functionals on the loop space of the manifold. Based on the approximation method due to Benci-Giannoni, we…
Inverting the vertices of elliptic billiard N-periodics with respect to a circle centered on one focus yields a new "focus-inversive" family inscribed in Pascal's Lima\c{c}on. The following are some of its surprising invariants: (i)…
In this article we study the one-dimensional dynamics of elastic collisions of particles with positive and negative mass. We show that such systems are equivalent to billiards induced by an inner product of possibly indefinite signature, we…
We study periodic infinite billiards in the plane. We show that for rational models, some particular obstacles can be added periodically, so that the billiard flow in the resulting table is recurrent in almost every direction.
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 introduce a new family of billiards which break time reversal symmetry in spite of having piece-wise straight trajectories. We show that our billiards preserve the ergodic and mixing properties of conventional billiards while they may…
It is an open question in smooth ergodic theory whether there exists a Hamiltonian disk map with zero topological entropy and (strong) mixing dynamics. Weak mixing has been known since Anosov and Katok first constructed examples in 1970.…
We give topological lower bounds on the number of periodic and closed trajectories in strictly convex smooth billiards. We use variational reduction admitting a finite group of symmetries and apply topological approach based on equivariant…
For any finite horizon Sinai billiard map T on the two-torus, we find t_*>1 such that for each t in (0,t_*) there exists a unique equilibrium state $\mu_t$ for $- t\log J^uT$, and $\mu_t$ is T-adapted. (In particular, the SRB measure is the…
Let S be a non-exceptional oriented surface of finite type. We give a new proof based on symbolic coding of the following result of Avila and Gouezel. The Teichmueller flow is exponentially mixing with respect to any ergodic…
Recent experiments and numerical simulations have shown that certain types of microorganisms "reflect" off of a flat surface at a critical angle of departure, independent of the angle of incidence. The nature of the reflection may be active…
In this paper we consider the billiard flow in the exterior of several (at least three) balls in $\R^3$ with centres lying on a plane. We assume that the balls satisfy the no eclipse condition (H) and their radii are small compared to the…
For a given rotation number we compute the Hausdorff dimension of the set of well approximable numbers. We use this result and an inhomogeneous version of Jarnik's theorem to show strong recurrence properties of the billiard flow in certain…
We provide a refinement of the Poincar\'{e} inequality on the torus $\mathbb{T}^d$: there exists a Lebesgue-null set $\mathcal{B} \subset \mathbb{T}^d$ of directions such that for every $\alpha \in \mathcal{B}$ there is a $c_{\alpha} > 0$…
In this article, we study the ergodicity of the geodesic flows on surfaces with no focal points. Let $M$ be a smooth connected and closed surface equipped with a $C^\infty$ Riemannian metric $g$, whose genus $\mathfrak{g} \geq 2$. Suppose…
Polygonal billiards exhibit a rich and complex dynamical behavior. In recent years polygonal billiards have attracted great attention due to their application in the understanding of anomalous transport, but also at the fundamental level,…
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…