English

Deterministic approximations of random reflectors

Probability 2012-04-12 v2

Abstract

Within classical optics, one may add microscopic "roughness" to a macroscopically flat mirror so that parallel rays of a given angle are reflected at different outgoing angles. Taking the limit (as the roughness becomes increasingly microscopic) one obtains a flat surface that reflects randomly, i.e., the transition from incoming to outgoing ray is described by a probability kernel (whose form depends on the nature of the microscopic roughness). We consider two-dimensional optics (a.k.a. billiards) and show that every random reflector on a line that satisfies a necessary measure-preservation condition (well established in the theory of billiards) can be approximated by deterministic reflectors in this way.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1203.0801,
  title  = {Deterministic approximations of random reflectors},
  author = {Omer Angel and Krzysztof Burdzy and Scott Sheffield},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1203.0801},
  year   = {2012}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-21T20:28:52.238Z