We investigate the dynamics of no-slip billiards, a model in which small rotating disks may exchange linear and angular momentum at collisions with the boundary. We give new results on periodicity and boundedness of orbits which suggest that a class of billiards (including all polygons) is not ergodic. Computer generated phase portraits demonstrate non-ergodic features, suggesting chaotic no-slip billiards cannot readily be constructed using the common techniques for generating chaos in standard billiards.
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 to the study of no-slip billiards--planar billiard systems in which the moving particle is a disc (with rotationally symmetric mass distribution) whose translational and rotational velocities can both change at each collision with the boundary of the billiard domain. In this paper we greatly extend previous results on boundedness of orbits (Broomhead and Gutk…
The purpose of this paper is to compare a classical non-holonomic system---a sphere rolling against the inner surface of a vertical cylinder under gravity---and a class of discrete dynamical systems known as no-slip billiards in similar configurations. A well-known notable feature of the non-holonomic system is that the rolling sphere does not fall; its height function is bounded and oscillates harmonically up and down. The central issue of the present work is whether similar bounded behavior can be observed in the no-slip billiard counterpart. Our main results are as follows: for circular cyl…
Astute variations in the geometry of mathematical billiard tables have been and continue to be a source of understanding their wide range of dynamical behaviors, from regular to chaotic. Viewing standard specular billiards in the broader setting of no-slip (or rough) collisions, we show that an equally rich spectrum of dynamics can be called forth by varying the mass distribution of the colliding particle. We look at three two-parameter families of billiards varying both the geometry of the table and the particle, including as special cases examples of standard billiards demonstrating dynamics…
The ideal Galton board and Lorentz gas billiard models have been studied numerically and analytically primarily in settings where friction and rotational velocity are neglected. We eliminate these simplifying assumptions and study the resulting dynamics of a more general model using no-slip collisions, in which particles rotate and may exchange linear and angular momentum at collisions while adhering to certain conservation laws. Using numerical experiments and phase portrait analysis we show that (in contrast to specular dispersing billiards) regularity persists when a small force is introduc…
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 in collisions involving a spherical body, a type of billiard system often referred to as no-slip has been used. In recent work, it has become apparent that no-slip billiards resemble non-holonomic mechanical systems in a number of ways. Based on an idea by Borisov, Kilin and Mamaev, we show that no-slip billiards very generally arise as limits of non-holonom…
We consider open billiards in the plane satisfying the no-eclipse condition. We show that the points in the non-wandering set depend differentiably on deformations to the boundary of the billiard. We use Bowen's equation to estimate the Hausdorff dimension of the non-wandering set of the billiard. Finally we show that the Hausdorff dimension depends differentiably on sufficiently smooth deformations to the boundary of the billiard, and estimate the derivative with respect to such deformations.
This article concerns a class of open billiards consisting of a finite number of strictly convex, non-eclipsing obstacles $K$. The non-wandering set $M_0$ of the billiard ball map is a topological Cantor set and its Hausdorff dimension has been previously estimated for billiards in $\mathbb{R}^2$, using well-known techniques. We extend these estimates to billiards in $\mathbb{R}^n$, and make various refinements to the estimates. These refinements also allow improvements to other results. We also show that in many cases, the non-wandering set is confined to a particular subset of $\mathbb{R}^n$…
We consider two nested billiards in $\mathbb R^d$, $d\geq3$, with $C^2$-smooth strictly convex boundaries. We prove that if the corresponding actions by reflections on the space of oriented lines commute, then the billiards are confocal ellipsoids. This together with the previous analogous result of the author in two dimensions solves completely the Commuting Billiard Conjecture due to Sergei Tabachnikov. The main result is deduced from the classical theorem due to Marcel Berger saying that in higher dimensions only quadrics may have caustics. We also prove versions of Berger's theorem and the…
Consider billiard dynamics in a strictly convex domain, and consider a trajectory that begins with the velocity vector making a small positive angle with the boundary. Lazutkin proved that in two dimensions, it is impossible for this angle to tend to zero along trajectories. We prove that such trajectories can exist in higher dimensions. Namely, using the geometric techniques of Arnold diffusion, we show that in three or more dimensions, assuming the geodesic flow on the boundary of the domain has a hyperbolic periodic orbit and a transverse homoclinic, the existence of trajectories asymptotic…
We consider polygonal billiards with collisions contracting the reflection angle towards the normal to the boundary of the table. In previous work, we proved that such billiards has a finite number of ergodic SRB measures supported on hyperbolic generalized attractors. Here we study the relation of these measures with the ergodic absolutely continuous invariant probability measures (acips) of the slap map, the 1-dimensional map obtained from the billiard map when the angle of reflection is always equal to zero. Our main result states that for a generic polygon, if the reflection law has a Lips…
We consider the billiard in the exterior of a piecewise smooth body in two-dimensional Euclidean space and show that the maximum number of directions of invisibility in such billiard is at most finite.
We prove that the Hausdorff dimension of the set of three-period orbits in classical billiards is at most one. Moreover, if the set of three-period orbits has Hausdorff dimension one, then it has a tangent line at almost every point.
We consider a polygon in a two-dimensional plane with a homogeneous constant magnetic field orthogonal to such plane, but inside the polygon, the magnetic field is zero. We study the dynamics of an electron with an initial velocity in this setting. Problems arise because we have a boundary with corners. In the square case, we generalize velocities with a rational slope and show numerical evidence of a chaotic-like behavior with other initial conditions.
We give the asymptotic growth of the number of primitive periodic trajectories of a two dimensional dispersive billiard, when we prescribe their number of bounces on one of the obstacles.
We study, by numerical simulations and semi-rigorous arguments, a two-parameter family of convex, two-dimensional billiard tables, generalizing the one-parameter class of oval billiards of Benettin--Strelcyn [Phys. Rev. A 17, 773 (1978)]. We observe interesting dynamical phenomena when the billiard tables are continuously deformed from the integrable circular billiard to different versions of completely-chaotic stadia. In particular, we conjecture that a new class of ergodic billiard tables is obtained in certain regions of the two-dimensional parameter space, when the billiards are close to s…
In this article, we consider mechanical billiard systems defined with Lagrange's integrable extension of Euler's two-center problems in the Euclidean space, on the sphere, and in the hyperbolic space of arbitrary dimension $n \ge 3$. In the three-dimensional Euclidean space, we show that the billiard systems with any finite combination of quadrics having two foci at the Kepler centers are integrable. The same holds for the projections of these systems on the three-dimensional sphere and the hyperbolic space by means of central projection. With the same approach, we also extend these results to…
E. Gutkin found a remarkable class of convex billiard tables in the plane which have a constant angle invariant curve. In this paper we prove that in dimension 3 only round sphere has such a property. For dimension greater than 3 it must be either a sphere or to have a very special geometric properties. In 2-dimensional case we prove a rigidity result for Gutkin billiard tables. This is done with the help of a new generating function introduced recently for billiards in our joint paper with A.E. Mironov. A formula for this generating function in higher dimensions is found.
Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya（加泰罗尼亚理工大学）；Centre de Recerca Matemàtica（数学研究中心）；Forschungsinstitut für Mathematik, ETH Zürich（苏黎世联邦理工学院数学研究所）；ETH Zürich（苏黎世联邦理工学院）
In this paper we prove two asymptotic estimates for pairs of closed trajectories for open billiards similar to those established by Pollicott and Sharp for closed geodesics on negatively curved compact surfaces. The first of these estimates holds for general open billiards in any dimension. The more intricate second estimate is established for open billiards satisfying the so called Dolgopyat type estimates. This class of billiards includes all open billiards in the plane and open billiards in $\R^N, N \geq 3$ satisfying some additional conditions.
We introduce a class of convex, higher-dimensional billiard models which generalise stadium billiards. These models correspond to the free motion of a point-particle in a region bounded by cylinders cut by planes. They are motivated by models of particles interacting via a string-type mechanism, and confined by hard walls. The combination of these elements may give rise to a defocusing mechanism, similar to that in two dimensions, which allows large chaotic regions in phase space. The remaining part of phase space is associated with marginally stable behaviour. In fact periodic orbits in these…
We describe an exponential Fermi accelerator in a two-dimensional billiard with a moving slit. We have found a mechanism of trapping regions which provides the exponential acceleration for almost all initial conditions with sufficiently high initial energy. Under an additional hyperbolicity assumption, we estimate the waiting time after which most high-energy orbits start to gain energy exponentially fast.
We describe conditions under which higher-dimensional billiard models in bounded, convex regions are fully chaotic, generalizing the Bunimovich stadium to dimensions above two. An example is a three-dimensional stadium bounded by a cylinder and several planes; the combination of these elements may give rise to defocusing, allowing large chaotic regions in phase space. By studying families of marginally-stable periodic orbits that populate the residual part of phase space, we identify conditions under which a nonlinear instability mechanism arises in their vicinity. For particular geometries, t…
We prove Knudsen's law for a gas of particles bouncing freely in a two dimensional pipeline with serrated walls consisting of irrational triangles. Dynamics are randomly perturbed and the corresponding random map studied under a skew-type deterministic representation which is shown to be ergodic and exact.
The Local Ergodic Theorem (also known as the `Fundamental Theorem') gives sufficient conditions under which a phase point has an open neighborhood that belongs (mod 0) to one ergodic component. This theorem is a key ingredient of many proofs of ergodicity for billiards and, more generally, for smooth hyperbolic maps with singularities. However the proof of that theorem relies upon a delicate assumption (Chernov-Sinai Ansatz), which is difficult to check for some physically relevant models, including gases of hard balls. Here we give a proof of the Local Ergodic Theorem for two dimensional bill…
We study the size of the set of ergodic directions for the directional billiard flows on the infinite band $\R\times [0,h]$ with periodically placed linear barriers of length $0<λ<h$. We prove that the set of ergodic directions is always uncountable. Moreover, if $λ/h\in(0,1)$ is rational the Hausdorff dimension of the set of ergodic directions is greater than 1/2. In both cases (rational and irrational) we construct explicitly some sets of ergodic directions.
We study combinatorics of billiard partitions which arose recently in the description of periodic trajectories of ellipsoidal billiards in d-dimensional Euclidean and pseudo-Euclidean spaces. Such partitions uniquely codify the sets of caustics, up to their types, which generate periodic trajectories. The period of a periodic trajectory is the largest part while the winding numbers are the remaining summands of the corresponding partition. In order to take into account the types of caustics as well, we introduce weighted partitions. We provide closed forms for the generating functions of these…
