Related papers: Dancing polygons, rolling balls and the Cartan-Eng…
The concept of cyclic tridiagonal pairs is introduced, and explicit examples are given. For a fairly general class of cyclic tridiagonal pairs with cyclicity N, we associate a pair of `divided polynomials'. The properties of this pair…
We consider a nonholonomic system describing a rolling of a dynamically non-symmetric sphere over a fixed sphere without slipping. The system generalizes the classical nonholonomic Chaplygin sphere problem and it is shown to be integrable…
We study outer billiards with contraction outside regular polygons. For regular $n$-gons with $n = 3, 4, 5, 6, 8$, and $12$, we show that as the contraction rate approaches $1$, dynamics of the system converges, in a certain sense, to that…
We use numerical continuation and bifurcation techniques in a boundary value setting to follow Lyapunov families of periodic orbits. These arise from the polygonal system of $n$ bodies in a rotating frame of reference. When the frequency of…
Billiard systems, broadly speaking, may be regarded as models of mechanical systems in which rigid parts interact through elastic impulsive (collision) forces. When it is desired or necessary to account for linear/angular momentum exchange…
Juggling patterns can be described by a sequence of cards which keep track of the relative order of the balls at each step. This interpretation has many algebraic and combinatorial properties, with connections to Stirling numbers, Dyck…
We study an isomorphism between the group of rigid body displacements and the group of dual quaternions modulo the dual number multiplicative group from the viewpoint of differential geometry in a projective space over the dual numbers.…
A box-ball system is a discrete dynamical system whose dynamics come from the balls jumping according to certain rules. A permutation on n objects gives a box-ball system state by assigning its one-line notation to n consecutive boxes.…
We study some aspects of the dynamics of the nonholonomic system formed by a heavy homogeneous ball constrained to roll without sliding on a steadily rotating surface of revolution. First, in the case in which the figure axis of the surface…
We present an intrinsic formulation of the kinematic problem of two $n-$dimensional manifolds rolling one on another without twisting or slipping. We determine the configuration space of the system, which is an $\frac{n(n+3)}2-$dimensional…
We study in this work the dynamics of a collection of identical hollow spheres (ping-pong balls) that rest on a horizontal metallic grid. Fluidization is achieved by means of a turbulent air current coming from below. The upflow is adjusted…
Dynamics of regular clusters of many non-touching particles falling under gravity in a viscous fluid at low Reynolds number are analysed within the point-particle model. Evolution of two families of particle configurations is determined: 2…
We consider a mechanical system consisting of an infinite rod (a straight line) and a ball (a massless point) on the plane. The rod rotates uniformly around one of its points. The ball is reflected elastically when colliding with the rod…
Nonlinear dynamics of a bouncing ball moving in gravitational field and colliding with a moving limiter is considered. Several simple models of table motion are studied and compared. Dependence of displacement of the table on time,…
Borisov, Mamaev and Kilin have recently found certain Poisson structures with respect to which the reduced and rescaled systems of certain non-holonomic problems, involving rolling bodies without slipping, become Hamiltonian, the…
In this paper, we systematically study non-crossing chords of simple polygons in the plane. We first introduce the reduced Euler characteristic of a family of line-segments, and subsequently investigate the structure of the diagonals and…
We consider the class ${\cal A}$ of graphs that contain no odd hole, no antihole, and no "prism" (a graph consisting of two disjoint triangles with three disjoint paths between them). We prove that every graph $G\in{\cal A}$ different from…
The problem of a disc and a ball rolling on a horizontal plane without slipping is considered. Differential constrained equations are shown to be integrated when the trajectory of the point of contact is taken in a form of the natural…
A tiling is a decomposition of a polygon into finitely many non-overlapping triangles. We prove that if a regular n-gon, $n \geq 5$, $n \neq 28$, can be tiled with similar right triangles, then one of the angles of these triangles is in…
In this paper, we introduce a natural dynamical analogue of crystalline order, which we call choreographic order. In an ordinary (static) crystal, a high degree of symmetry may be achieved through a careful arrangement of the fundamental…