Related papers: Cusps of caustics by reflection in ellipses
We present a new class of electrostatics problems that are exactly solvable by adding finitely many image charges. Given a charge at some location inside a cavity bounded by up to four conducting grounded segments of spheres: if the spheres…
Let $E$ be an elliptic curve defined over $\mathbb Q$. Let $\Gamma$ be a subgroup of $E(\mathbb Q)$ and $P\in E(\mathbb Q)$. In [1], it was proved that if $E$ has no nontrivial rational torsion points, then $P\in\Gamma$ if and only if $P\in…
We describe an ensemble of (sparse) random matrices whose eigenvalues follow the Gibbs distribution for n particles of the Coulomb gas on the unit circle at inverse temperature beta. Our approach combines elements from the theory of…
We investigate the caustic topologies for binary gravitational lenses made up of two objects whose gravitational potential declines as $1/r^n$. With $n<1$ this corresponds to power-law dust distributions like the singular isothermal sphere.…
A submanifold of the standard symplectic space determines a partially defined, multi-valued symplectic map, the outer symplectic billiard correspondence. Two points are in this correspondence if the midpoint of the segment connecting them…
In the present paper we introduce a new generating function for outer billiards in the plane. Using this generating function, we prove the following rigidity result: if the vicinity of the smooth convex plane curve $\gamma$ of positive…
Billiards in ellipses have a confocal ellipse or hyperbola as caustic. The goal of this paper is to prove that for each billiard of one type there exists an isometric counterpart of the other type. Isometry means here that the lengths of…
Dan Reznik found, by computer experimentation, a number of conserved quantities associated with periodic billiard trajectories in ellipses. We prove some of his observations using a non-standard generating function for the billiard ball…
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…
In a recent paper of Blomer, Bourgain, Radziwi{\l}{\l} and Rudnick, the authors proved the existence of small gaps between eigenvalues of the Laplacian in a rectangular billiard with sides $\pi$ and $\pi/\sqrt\alpha$, i.e. numbers of the…
We study outer billiard systems around a class of circular sectors. For semi-discs, we prove the existence of elliptic islands occupying a positive proportion of the plane. Combined with known results, this shows the coexistence of…
We introduce several-dozen experimentally-found invariants of Poncelet N-periodics in the confocal ellipse pair (Elliptic Billiard). Recall this family is fully defined by two integrals of motion (linear and angular momentum), so any "new"…
The purpose of this paper is to study the dynamics of a square billiard with a non-standard reflection law such that the angle of reflection of the particle is a linear contraction of the angle of incidence. We present numerical and…
Mathematical billiards is much like the real game: a point mass, representing the ball, rolls in a straight line on a (perfectly friction-less) table, striking the sides according to the law of reflection. A billiard trajectory is then…
In this paper we continue to study billiards with flat points, by constructing a spec family of dispersing billiards with cusps. All boundaries of the table have positive curvature except that the curvature vanishes at the vertex of a cusp,…
We determine the number of cusps of minimal Picard modular surfaces. The proof also counts cusps of other Picard modular surfaces of arithmetic interest. Consequently, for each N > 0 there are finitely many commensurability classes of…
Julia Robinson has given a first-order definition of the rational integers Z in the rational numbers Q by a formula (\forall \exists \forall \exists)(F=0) where the \forall-quantifiers run over a total of 8 variables, and where F is a…
H.S.M. Coxeter showed that a group $\Gamma$ is a finite reflection group of an Euclidean space if and only if $\Gamma$ is a finite Coxeter group. In this paper, we define {\it reflections} of geodesic spaces in general, and we prove that…
Let $E$ be an elliptic curve over $\mathbb{Q}$ of conductor $N$. We obtain an explicit formula, as a product of local terms, for the ramification index at each cusp of a modular parametrization of $E$ by $X_0(N)$. Our formula shows that the…
Billiards tables - a minimal model for particles moving in a confined region - are known to present classical (and quantum) different features according to their shape, ranging from strongly chaotic to integrable dynamics. Here we consider…