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Periodic orbits in planar smooth billiard table with large periods

Given a plane billiard table with a smooth boundary which is a Jordan curve, I wonder if there is always a periodic orbit with sufficiently large period. Formulation of my question: We are considering ...
XYC's user avatar
  • 441
2 votes
0 answers
109 views

Proving light escapes mirrors via ergodic theory of billiards

There's a longstanding open problem concerning whether or not it's possible to trap all the light from a point source using a finite collection of circles/lines whose sides are mirrors. This seems ...
interstice's user avatar
3 votes
0 answers
145 views

2-ball billiards in a circle

Consider a 2D circular billiards table with diameter 1m containing two balls with diameter 0.25m. Let each ball start with a speed of 1m/s. In general, this speed could change after the balls hit ...
bobuhito's user avatar
  • 1,547
5 votes
2 answers
277 views

Examples of different levels of the ergodic hierachy (specifically: weakly mixing & merely ergodic)

I am interested in generalizing some aspects of the ergodic hierarchy (of classical dynamical systems) to quantum theory. However, while I understand the definitions of the different levels of the ...
Victor Galitski's user avatar
5 votes
0 answers
166 views

Pocket billiards with balls in general position

There were at least two earlier MO questions about ideal pocket billiards. (Ideal: frictionless, perfectly elastic collisions.) Perfectly centered break of a perfectly aligned pool ball rack. Does ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
4 votes
0 answers
232 views

Illuminating a just-barely irrational polygon

As has been discussed earlier on MO,1,2 recently an impressive advance was proved concerning internally illuminating a mirrored polygon. Here is the result: Let $P$ be a rational polygon. Then for ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
33 votes
3 answers
2k views

Why is the billiard problem for obtuse triangles so hard?

This is an incredibly naive question so this may be closed. Nevertheless, I have been reading about the problem asking if every obtuse triangle admits a periodic billiard path, which has been open ...
user918212's user avatar
  • 1,087
1 vote
0 answers
84 views

Trapping lightrays under nonstandard reflections and/or paths

Almost every version of trapping lightrays with mirrors is either resolved---usually negatively---or open: "It is unknown whether one can construct a polygonal trap for a parallel beam of light": ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
616 views

Types of triangles admitting periodic billiard orbits

It is an open problem in dynamical systems if every triangle has a periodic billiard orbit. So far it has been proven that equilateral triangles, isosceles triangles, right triangles, and obtuse ...
user918212's user avatar
  • 1,087
2 votes
1 answer
139 views

6-periodic billiards trajectory in acute triangle

We can construct a 3-periodic billiards trajectory in an acute triangle in a classical geometric way, say taking the altitudes. Is there a similar way to construct a 6-periodic billiards?
phoebe's user avatar
  • 33
8 votes
1 answer
322 views

Under which conditions do ellipsoids have a focal property?

Given an ellipsoid $E$, we consider the trajectories of light inside $E$ assuming that $\partial E$ would be a mirror. In other words, let a light trajectory be piecewise linear path $\gamma:[0,\infty)...
Josué Tonelli-Cueto's user avatar
18 votes
0 answers
480 views

Trapping lightrays with segment mirrors

Q. Is it possible to trap all the light from one point source by a finite collection of two-sided disjoint segment mirrors? I posed this question in several forums before (e.g., here and in an ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
3 votes
2 answers
194 views

A Really Simple Stochastic Dynamic Billiard

Consider the following stochastic dynamical system. Fix $a > 0$, $b > 0$, $c>0$ and $v > 0$, and let $\mathbf{r}(t)=(x(t),y(t),z(t))$ be the position at time $t$ of a point which moves ...
Maurizio Barbato's user avatar
39 votes
2 answers
3k views

3D Billiards problem inside a torus

I have been trying to simulate the behavior of a light particle being reflected inside of a torus (essentially a 3D billiards problem). I have found that after a few thousand bounces, it converges on "...
ShnitzelKiller's user avatar
10 votes
1 answer
324 views

A question about billiards

This is a question in a rather well investigated subject of which I know very little and I have a hard time "translating" the general results available. Let me also say that I got interested in this ...
Liviu Nicolaescu's user avatar
9 votes
3 answers
612 views

Existence of periodic orbits in rational billiards

Recently I've got interested in dynamical billiards. Some results in this field are obtained by elementary methods. For instance, see George W. Tokarsky's Polygonal Rooms Not Illuminable from Every ...
AlterTim's user avatar
  • 315
10 votes
1 answer
579 views

Periodic billiard paths in hyperbolic triangles

It is a theorem of Masur that all rational triangles in the Euclidean plane posses a periodic billiard path, one obeying the reflection law that the angle of incidence equals the angle of reflection. ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
38 views

Boundedness of partial products for a divergent trig product

I am looking at a discrete dynamical system and I wish to show that it is bounded. I know that the displacement after $n$ iterations is given by the product $$\Delta_n=\prod_{k=0}^n \left(1+\frac{2\...
C Cox's user avatar
  • 11
6 votes
0 answers
180 views

How much energy will be released in the explosion when one shoots a superelastic billiard ball into a collection of still superelastic billiard balls?

Consider the following scenario. Let $\alpha>1$. Suppose whenever two superelastic balls collide at speed $\gamma$ they bounce off each other at speed $\gamma\cdot\alpha$ (i.e. $\alpha$ is the ...
Joseph Van Name's user avatar
5 votes
2 answers
319 views

Are periodic billiard trajectories stable on a manifold with strictly convex boundary?

Let $(M,g)$ be a compact Riemannian manifold with strictly convex boundary. Let $\gamma:S^1\to M$ be a periodic billiard trajectory (geodesic in the interior and reflects specularly at the boundary). ...
Joonas Ilmavirta's user avatar
3 votes
0 answers
171 views

Trapped Billiard trajectories on non-convex billiard tables

Let $\Omega$ be a domain in $\mathbb{R}^2$ with smooth boundary. A billiard trajectory is a continuous curve $c: \mathbb{R}\supseteq I \longrightarrow \overline{\Omega}$ such that $c(t) \in \partial ...
Matthias Ludewig's user avatar
10 votes
3 answers
1k views

Which polygons have *simple* periodic billiard paths?

I know (or, rather, believe) that it remains unknown whether every polygon has a periodic billiard path. But Howard Masur proved in the 1980's that every rational polygon (vertex angles rational ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
37 votes
11 answers
7k views

What "real life" problems can be solved using billiards?

Recently I gave an interview to local media where I explained some basic open problems in billiard dynamics. After a 45 min interview the reported asked me what "real life" problems can be ...
Ferran V.'s user avatar
  • 637
5 votes
1 answer
189 views

Unfoldings of trajectories on the Veech triangle $V_4$

Let $V_4$ be the isosceles triangle with base angle $\pi/8$. $V_4$ is a Veech triangle, so the dynamics of billiards on it are very well understood. Above is the unfolding of $V_4$, with edge ...
Alex Becker's user avatar
8 votes
4 answers
666 views

Existence of nonergodic polygonal billiard

Let $P$ be a polygon in the plane. One can define the billiard flow on the unit tangent bundle of $P$, just following the trajectories of the billiard at speed one. A standard conjecture is that a ...
Selim G's user avatar
  • 2,696
8 votes
1 answer
694 views

Raphael Douady's thesis: Applications du théorème des tores invariants

Raphael Douady's thesis, Applications du théorème des tores invariants, has been cited in numerous papers by many experts. According Wikipedia, he proves of the equivalence of KAM ...
Pengfei's user avatar
  • 2,244
96 votes
2 answers
114k views

Perfectly centered break of a perfectly aligned pool ball rack

Imagine the beginning of a game of pool, you have 16 balls, 15 of them in a triangle <| and 1 of them being the cue ball off to the left of that triangle. Imagine that the rack (the 15 balls in a ...
Phedg1's user avatar
  • 999
7 votes
2 answers
274 views

Well-definedness of single-particle smooth billiards flow

Single-particle billiards systems in a domain with corners, or multi-particle billiards in a domain with smooth boundary, can exhibit singularities in finite time. (The former phenomenon is well known;...
James Propp's user avatar
  • 19.7k
1 vote
1 answer
270 views

Computing saddle connections in flat structures

Background: A polygonal billiards table $P$ with rational angles gives rise to a flat structure $S(P)$ in a standard way, described here. Curves of constant argument on $S(P)$ which start and end at a ...
Alex Becker's user avatar
32 votes
5 answers
1k views

Can every $\mathbb{Z}^2$ disk be pinball-reached?

Let every point of $\mathbb{Z}^2$ be surrounded by a mirrored disk of radius $r < \frac{1}{2}$, except leave the origin $(0,0)$ unoccupied by a disk. Q. Is it the case that every disk can be hit ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
4 votes
0 answers
83 views

Do identical orbit tiles imply identical combinatorial types?

Given a periodic trajectory on a triangle, we can associate to this trajectory a sequence of integers $1,2$ and $3$ by labeling the edges of the triangle and taking the sequence of edges the ...
Alex Becker's user avatar
10 votes
1 answer
447 views

Does the $n$-gonal billiards conjecture follow from the $m$-gonal conjecture when $m>n$?

For $n\ge 3$, define the $n$-gonal billiards conjecture as the statement All convex $n$-gons admit periodic billiard trajectories. To the best of my knowledge this question remains open for all $n$...
Alex Becker's user avatar
25 votes
4 answers
1k views

Pinball on the infinite plane

Imagine pinball on the infinite plane, with every lattice point $\mathbb{Z}^2$ a point pin. The ball has radius $r < \frac{1}{2}$. It starts just touching the origin pin, and shoots off at angle $\...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
31 votes
3 answers
3k views

Optic fibers after Joseph O'Rourke

Let $\gamma\colon[a,b]\to \mathbb R^3$ be a smooth curve with curvature $< 1$. Consider a tube, formed by one parameter family of unit circles with center at $\gamma(t)$ in the plane orthogonal to $...
Anton Petrunin's user avatar
3 votes
0 answers
262 views

Polygon illumination with perturbed reflections

Here is a variation on the classical polygon illumination problem. For $c \geq 0$ we say that a mirror has reflection index $c$ if whenever a ray hits the mirror with angle of incidence $\alpha$ then ...
Gjergji Zaimi's user avatar
37 votes
6 answers
3k views

Billiard dynamics under gravity

Has the dynamics of billiards in a polygon subject to gravity been studied? What I have in mind is something like this:            Still Snell's Law ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
100 votes
6 answers
5k views

Light rays bouncing in twisted tubes

Imagine a smooth curve $c$ sweeping out a unit-radius disk that is orthogonal to the curve at every point. Call the result a tube. I want to restrict the radius of curvature of $c$ to be at most 1. I ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
7 votes
2 answers
593 views

Does the random Lorenz gas have a non-trivial diffusion coefficient?

For the periodic Lorenz gas Sinai showed that rescaling the trajectory of the tracer particle yields Brownian motion in the limit. Does there exist a similar result for the random Lorenz gas? If not,...
Paul Tupper's user avatar
24 votes
2 answers
1k views

Billiard dynamics for multiple balls

I am interested to learn to what extent results on billiards in polygons have been extended to multiple balls. Assume the balls have equal radii and the same mass, the same initial speed, and all ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
8 votes
0 answers
246 views

Billiards with incompatible regions

An existing question asks whether "almost every" two-dimensional billiard possesses at least one orbit that is dense in its interior. My question is about the following set of strong counter-examples:...
mjqxxxx's user avatar
  • 131
5 votes
3 answers
2k views

Dense orbits in billiards

This should be true in a more general setting, but for simplicity consider billiards that are connected, compact subsets of the plane with boundary $C^2$ except at finitely many points. A ball (or a ...
Zatrapilla's user avatar
33 votes
4 answers
3k views

Does there exist a shot in ideal pocket billiards?

Assume you have one shot with the cue ball in pocket billiards (a.k.a. pool), with the game idealized in that no spin is placed on the cue ball in the initial shot, all collisions between billiard ...
Joseph O'Rourke's user avatar
6 votes
0 answers
450 views

Differential equation of line tangent to caustics

This problem (or rather, statement that I cannot understand) has arisen in a paper I have been reading "Geometry of Integrable Billiards and Pencils of Quadrics" by Dragovic and Radnovic. I'd be most ...
A B's user avatar
  • 281
14 votes
2 answers
1k views

Polygonal billards programs

I'm looking for software that will give billiard trajectories in arbitrary plane polygons. After much work I was able to produce this figure. (source) It was a good exercise, but at this point I ...
john mangual's user avatar
  • 22.8k
9 votes
4 answers
2k views

Birkhoff conjecture about integrable billiards

There is a conjecture by Birkhoff which claims that for a simple closed $C^2$ plane curve $C$, if the billiard ball map is integrable then the curve is an ellipse. Integrability here might be ...
DamienC's user avatar
  • 8,395