Convex billiards and a theorem by E. Hopf (Q1320990): Difference between revisions
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English | Convex billiards and a theorem by E. Hopf |
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Convex billiards and a theorem by E. Hopf (English)
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3 May 1994
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We consider billiards in convex compact planar domains. Our main result states that if the phase space of the billiard ball map is foliated by not null-homotopic continuous invariant curves then the domain is circular. The result solves in part a Birkhoff's conjecture that only for elliptic domains billiards are integrable. We give a variational version of this result: the only billiards without conjugate points are circular billiards. The main tool of the paper is to apply the ``discrete version'' of E. Hopf's method invented for Riemannian manifolds without conjugate points.
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integrable billiards
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billiards
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convex compact planar domains
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Birkhoff's conjecture
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conjugate points
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circular billiards
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