Topological entropy and periodic points of two-dimensional hyperbolic billiards (Q806134)

The paper studies the behaviour of two-dimensional billiards, i.e. dynamical systems generated by the motion of a particle in a connected, bounded domain Q in the plane or the torus \(T^ 2\). The particle moves along the geodesics and reflects its movement when hits the boundary \(\partial Q\) of Q. If the boundary \(\partial Q\) is strictly convex inside Q in each point of smoothness of \(\partial Q\), then the system satisfies the conditions of hyperbolicity. The autor relates the behaviour of a billiard system with the so-called topological Markov chain and proves several results concerning the comparison of the topological entropy of a billiard with that of a related topological Markov chain. The paper concludes with some corollaries and interesting examples concerning the behaviour of special dynamical systems.