Related papers: Chaotic properties for billiards in circular polyg…
We develop a framework for dealing with smooth approximations to billiards with corners in the two-dimensional setting. Let a polygonal trajectory in a billiard start and end up at the same billiard's corner point. We prove that smooth…
The Sinai billiard map $T$ on the two-torus, i.e., the periodic Lorentz gaz, is a discontinuous map. Assuming finite horizon and another condition we introduce -- namely \emph{negligible singularities} -- we prove that the metric pressure…
The self-similar Lorentz billiard channel is a spatially extended deterministic dynamical system which consists of an infinite one-dimensional sequence of cells whose sizes increase monotonically according to their indices. This special…
Rigid bodies collision maps in dimension two, under a natural set of physical requirements, can be classified into two types: the standard specular reflection map and a second which we call, after Broomhead and Gutkin, no-slip. This leads…
In this paper, we show that billiard orbits in rational polygons and geodesics on translation surfaces exhibit super-fast spreading, an optimal time-quantitative majority property about the corresponding linear flow that implies uniformity…
We show that in the space of all convex billiard boundaries, the set of boundaries with rational caustics is dense. More precisely, the set of billiard boundaries with caustics of rotation number $1/q$ is polynomial sense in the smooth…
Dynamical billiards, or the behavior of a particle traveling in a planar region $D$ undergoing elastic collisions with the boundary, has been extensively studied and is used to model many physical phenomena such as a Boltzmann gas. 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…
We consider the Boltzmann system corresponding to the motion of a billiard with a linear boundary under the influence of a gravitational field. We derive analytic conditions of Cayley's type for periodicity of its trajectories and provide…
We prove that any sufficiently small perturbation of an isosceles triangle has a periodic billiard path. Our proof involves the analysis of certain infinite families of Fourier series that arise in connection with triangular billiards, and…
We study dynamical properties of the billiard flow on convex polyhedra away from a neighbourhood of the non-smooth part of the boundary, called ``pockets''. We prove there are only finitely many immersed periodic tubes missing the pockets…
The classical dynamics of the isotropic two-dimensional harmonic oscillator confined by an elliptic hard wall is discussed. The interplay between the harmonic potential with circular symmetry and the boundary with elliptical symmetry does…
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,…
The billiard dynamics inside an ellipse is integrable. It has zero topological entropy, four separatrices in the phase space, and a continuous family of convex caustics: the confocal ellipses. We prove that the curvature flow destroys the…
Following a recent paper by Baryshnikov and Zharnitskii, we consider outer billiards in the plane possessing invariant curves consisting of periodic orbits. We prove the existence and abundance of such tables using tools from sub-Riemannian…
The billiard problem of statistical physics is considered in a new geometric approach with a symmetric phase space. The structure and topological features of typical billiard phase portrait are defined. The connection between geometric,…
We solve the longstanding problem of smoothing a stadium billiard. Besides our results demonstrate why there were no clear conjectures how much the stadium's boundary must be smoothened to destroy chaotic dynamics. To do that we needed to…
This survey is based on a series of talks I gave at the conference "Dynamical systems and diophantine approximation" at l'Instut Henri Poincar\'e in June 2003. I will present asymptotic results (transitivity, ergodicity, weak-mixing) for…
The dynamic geometry of the family of 3-periodics in the Elliptic Billiard is mystifying. Besides conserving perimeter and the ratio of inradius-to-circumradius, it has a stationary point. Furthermore, its triangle centers sweep out…
We use scanning near-field optical microscopy to image hyperbolic phonon polaritons in hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) billiards with integrable and chaotic geometries. In Sinai billiards, we observe irregular mode patterns consistent with…