We give a complete solution of the following problem: Find, classify and count the (classes of) periodic orbits on an equilateral triangle. We prove that Fagnano's period 3 orbit is the only periodic orbit with odd period. A periodic orbit is either prime or some d-fold iterate thereof. We count prime and iterate periodic orbits of period $2n$ via a bijection with a certain partition of $n$, then count only prime orbits using the prime factorization of $n$.
There is an open set of right triangles such that for each irrational triangle in this set (i) periodic billiards orbits are dense in the phase space, (ii) there is a unique nonsingular perpendicular billiard orbit which is not periodic, and (iii) the perpendicular periodic orbits fill the corresponding invariant surface.
We find an upper estimate for a splitting time of a thin parallel beam for irrational triangle billiards in terms of some number-theoretic function of angles. We provide an upper estimate on this function for some class of angles.
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 reveals some self-similarity phenomena in irrational triangular billiards. Our analysis illustrates the surprising fact that billiards on a triangle near a Veech triangle is extremely complicated even though Billiards on a Veech triangle is very well understood.
Any periodic trajectory on an isosceles triangle gives rise to a periodic trajectory on a right triangle obtained by identifying the halves of the original triangle. We examine the relationship between periodic trajectories on isosceles triangles and the trajectories on right triangles obtained in this manner, and the consequences of this relationship for the existence of stable trajectories on isosceles triangles and the properties of their orbit tiles.
We classify the periodic digit strings which arise from periodic billiard orbits on the four convex $n$-gons $Δ$ which tile $\mathbb{R}^2$ under reflection, answering problem a posed by Baxter and Umble. $Δ$ is either an equilateral triangle, a $45-45-90$ triangle a $30-60-90$, triangle or a rectangle.
This paper had a serious error. In fixing the error the emphasis of the paper has changed completely, thus meriting a new name: ``Periodic orbits in right triangles''. I have made a new submission to arXiv with this name.
The orbit closure of the unfolding of every rational right and isosceles triangle is computed and the asymptotic number of periodic billiard trajectories in these triangles is deduced. This follows by classifying all orbit closures of rank at least two in hyperelliptic components of strata of Abelian and quadratic differentials. Additionally, given a fixed set of angles, the orbit closure of the unfolding of all unit area rational parallelograms, isosceles trapezoids, and right trapezoids outside of a discrete set is determined.
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.
Consider a periodic tiling of a plane by equal triangles obtained from the equilateral tiling by a linear transformation. We study a following tiling billiard: a ball follows straight segments and bounces of the boundaries of the tiles into neighbouring tiles in such a way that the coefficient of refraction is equal to -1. We show that almost all the trajectories of such a billiard are either closed or escape linearly, and for closed trajectories we prove that their periods belong to the set 4N+2. We also give a precise description of the exceptional family of trajectories (of zero measure) : …
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 mesmerizing loci including ellipses, quartics, circles, and a slew of other more complex curves. Here we explore a bevy of new phenomena relating to (i) the shape of 3-periodics and (ii) the kinematics of certain Triangle Centers constrained to the Billiard boundary, specifically the non-monotonic motion some can display with respect to 3-periodics. Hypnotizing is …
Inst. de Matemática e Estatística, Univ. Federal de Goiás（戈亚斯联邦大学数学与统计学院）；Data Science Consulting（数据科学咨询公司）
Discovered by William Chapple in 1746, the Poristic family is a set of variable-perimeter triangles with common Incircle and Circumcircle. By definition, the family has constant Inradius-to-Circumradius ratio. Interestingly, this invariance also holds for the family of 3-periodics in the Elliptic Billiard, though here Inradius and Circumradius are variable and perimeters are constant. Indeed, we show one family is mapped onto the other via a varying similarity transform. This implies that any scale-free quantities and invariants observed in one family must hold on the other.
By a transfer operator approach to Maass cusp forms and the Selberg zeta function for cofinite Hecke triangle groups, M. Möller and the author found a factorization of the Selberg zeta function into a product of Fredholm determinants of transfer-operator-like families: $Z(s) = \det(1-\mc L_s^+)\det(1-\mc L_s^-)$. In this article we show that the operator families $\mc L_s^\pm$ arise as families of transfer operators for the triangle groups underlying the Hecke triangle groups, and that for $s\in\C$, $\Rea s=\tfrac12$, the operator $\mc L_s^+$ (resp. $\mc L_s^-$) has a 1-eigenfunction if and on…
The arithmetic triangular billiards are classically chaotic but have Poissonian energy level statistics, in ostensible violation of the BGS conjecture. We show that the length spectra of their periodic orbits divides into subspectra differing by the parity of the number of reflections from the triangle sides; in the quantum treatment that parity defines the reflection phase of the orbit contribution to the Gutzwiller formula for the energy level density. We apply these results to all 85 arithmetic triangles and establish the boundary conditions under which the quantum billiard is \textquotedbl…
We consider 3-periodic orbits in an elliptic billiard. Numerical experiments conducted by Dan Reznik have shown that the locus of the centers of inscribed circles of the corresponding triangles is an ellipse. We prove this fact by the complexification of the problem coupled with the complex law or rfelection.
A periodic trajectory on a polygonal billiard table is stable if it persists under any sufficiently small perturbation of the table. It is a standard result that a periodic trajectory on an $n$-gon gives rise in a natural way to a closed path on an $n$-punctured sphere, and that the trajectory is stable iff this path is null-homologous. We present a novel proof of this result in the language of covering spaces, which generalizes to characterize the stable trajectories in neighborhoods of a polygon. Using this, we classify the stable periodic trajectories near the 30-60-90 triangle, giving a ne…
Univ. Federal de Goiás（戈亚斯联邦大学）；Univ. Federal de Juiz de Fora（茹伊斯迪福拉联邦大学）；Data Science Consulting（数据科学咨询公司）
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 centers. Some will sweep ellipses, and others higher-degree algebraic curves. We propose two rigorous methods to prove if the locus of a given center is an ellipse: one based on computer algebra, and another based on an algebro-geometric method. We also prove that if the triangle center function is rational on sidelengths, the locus is algebraic
Given a planar compact convex billiard table $T$, we give an algorithm to find the shortest generalised closed billiard orbits on $T$. (Generalised billiard orbits are usual billiard orbits if $T$ has smooth boundary.) This algorithm is finite if $T$ is a polygon and provides an approximation scheme in general. As an illustration, we show that the shortest generalised closed billiard orbit in a regular $n$-gon $R_n$ is 2-bounce for $n \ge 4$, with length twice the width of $R_n$. As an application we obtain an algorithm computing the Ekeland-Hofer-Zehnder capacity of the four-dimensional domai…
The locus of centers of inscribed circles in triangles, the 3-periodic orbits of an elliptic billiard, is also an ellipse. In this work we obtain the canonical equation of this ellipse, complementing the previous results obtained by O. Romaskevich.
In this work we completely describe the dynamics of triangle tiling billiards. In the first part of this work, we propose a geometric approach of dynamics by introducing natural foliations associated to it. In the second part, we exploit the relationship between triangle tiling billiards and a family of fully flipped $3$-interval exchange transformations on the circle. We give a combinatorial approach of dynamics via renormalization. By uniting the two approaches, we prove several conjectures on the dynamics of triangle tiling billiards. First, we prove the Tree Conjecture and the 4n+2 Conject…
We consider the billiard map inside a polyhedron. We give a condition for the stability of the periodic trajectories. We apply this result to the case of the tetrahedron. We deduce the existence of an open set of tetrahedra which have a periodic orbit of length four (generalization of Fagnano's orbit for triangles), moreover we can study completly the orbit of points along this coding.
We study dissipative polygonal outer billiards, i.e. outer billiards about convex polygons with a contractive reflection law. We prove that dissipative outer billiards about any triangle and the square are asymptotically periodic, i.e. they have finitely many global attracting periodic orbits. A complete description of the bifurcations of the periodic orbits as the contraction rates vary is given. For the square billiard, we also show that the asymptotic periodic behavior is robust under small perturbations of the vertices and the contraction rates. Finally, we describe some numerical experime…
This paper shows that the method of Galperin which had been widely accepted in the literature since 1983 for constructing a non-dense and non-periodic trajectory in a triangle can never work. This is done by showing that all possible examples that can be produced by Galperin's method of which there are infinitely many all produce a periodic trajectory.
Few years ago we developed jointly with I.Dynnikov new discretization of complex analysis (DCA) based on the two-dimensional manifolds with colored black/white triangulation. Especially deep results were obtained for the Euclidean plane with equilateral triangle lattice. In the present work we develop a DCA theory for the analogs of equilateral triangle lattice in Hyperbolic plane. Some specific very interesting "dynamical phenomena" appear in this case solving most fundamental boundary problems. Mike Boyle from the University of Maryland helped to use here the methods of symbolic dynamics
A periodic orbit on a frictionless billiard table is a piecewise linear path of a billiard ball that begins and ends at the same point with the same angle of incidence. The period of a primitive periodic orbit is the number of times the ball strikes a side of the table as it traverses its trajectory exactly once. In this paper we find and classify the periodic orbits on a billiard table in the shape of a 120-isosceles triangle, a 60-rhombus, a 60-90-120-kite, and a 30-right triangle. In each case, we use the edge tessellation (also known as tiling) of the plane generated by the figure to unfol…
Harvard Business School（哈佛商学院）；Department of Economics and Center of Mathematical Sciences and Applications, Harvard University（哈佛大学经济与数学科学及应用中心）；a16z crypto（a16z 加密）
It has been known since Fagnano in 1775 that an acute triangle always has a periodic billiard path, namely the orthic triangle. It is currently unknown whether every obtuse triangle has a periodic path. In 2006, Schwartz showed that every obtuse triangle with obtuse angle at most 100 degrees has a periodic path. The aim of this paper is to show that every obtuse triangle with obtuse angle at most 112.3 degrees has a periodic path using a computer assisted proof.
Data Science Consulting（数据科学咨询公司）；Inst. de Matemática e Estatística, Univ. Federal de Goiás（戈亚斯联邦大学数学与统计学院）
A Circumconic passes through a triangle's vertices; an Inconic is tangent to the sidelines. We study the variable geometry of certain conics derived from the 1d family of 3-periodics in the Elliptic Billiard. Some display intriguing invariances such as aspect ratio and pairwise ratio of focal lengths.
