Related papers: Invariants of Self-Intersected N-Periodics in the …
We introduce symplectic billiards for pairs of possibly non-convex polygons. After establishing basic properties, we give several criteria on pairs of polygons for the symplectic billiard map to be fully periodic, i.e. $\textit{every}$…
We review some properties of periodic orbit families in polygonal billiards and discuss in particular a sum rule that they obey. In addition, we provide algorithms to determine periodic orbit families and present numerical results that shed…
In this experimental work we study billiard trajectories in triangular pyramids and try to establish conditions that guarantee the existence (or absence) of 4-cycles (there can be not more, than three of them). We formulate conjectures and…
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…
We introduce and prove numerous new results about the orbits of the $T$-fractal billiard. Specifically, in Section 3, we give a variety of sufficient conditions for the existence of a sequence of compatible periodic orbits. In Section 4, we…
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…
Previously we showed the family of 3-periodics in the elliptic billiard (confocal pair) is the image under a variable similarity transform of poristic triangles (those with non-concentric, fixed incircle and circumcircle). Both families…
A comprehensive analysis of periodic trajectories of billiards within ellipses in the Euclidean plane is presented. The novelty of the approach is based on a relationship recently established by the authors between periodic billiard…
Billiard systems offer a simple setting to study regular and chaotic dynamics. Gravitational billiards are generalizations of these classical billiards which are amenable to both analytical and experimental investigations. Most previous…
We give lower bound on the number of periodic billiard trajectories inside a generic smooth strictly convex closed surface in 3-space: for odd n, there are at least 2(n-1) such trajectories. We apply a topological approach based on the…
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 consider billiard trajectories in a smooth convex body in $\mathbb R^d$ and estimate the number of distinct periodic trajectories that make exactly $p$ reflections per period at the boundary of the body. In the case of prime $p$ we…
We consider the dual billiard map with respect to a smooth strictly convex closed hypersurface in linear 2m-dimensional symplectic space and prove that it has at least 2m distinct 3-periodic orbits.
A triangle center such as the incenter, barycenter, etc., is specified by a function thrice- and cyclically applied on sidelengths and/or angles. Consider the 1d family of 3-periodics in the elliptic billiard, and the loci of its triangle…
All the segments (or their continuations) of a billiard trajectory inside an ellipsoid of $\Rset^n$ are tangent to n-1 quadrics of the pencil of confocal quadrics determined by the ellipsoid. The quadrics associated to periodic billiard…
We give a beautiful explicit example of a convex plane curve such that the outer billiard has a given finite number of invariant curves. Moreover, the dynamics on these curves is a standard shift. This example can be considered as an outer…
In this paper we study centrally symmetric Birkhoff billiard tables. We introduce a closed invariant set $\mathcal{M}_\mathcal{B}$ consisting of locally maximizing orbits of the billiard map lying inside the region $\mathcal{B}$ bounded by…
We give an optical physicist view of the problem of the trajectories in a polygonal billiard using only basic facts of Optics and the theory of functions of a complex variable. This approach allow us to stablish a certain correspondence…
We study dissipative polygonal outer billiards, i.e. outer billiards about convex polygons with a contractive reflection law. We prove that dissipative outer billiards about any triangle and the square are asymptotically periodic, i.e. they…
The paper gives a review of very recent results related to the Poncelet Theorem, on the occasion of its bicentennial. We are telling the story of one of the most beautiful theorems of Geometry, recalling for the general mathematical…