On configuration spaces of plane polygons, sub-Riemannian geometry and periodic orbits of outer billiards (Q2471383)

Recently \textit{Y. Baryshnikov} and \textit{V. Zharnitsky} [Math. Res. Lett. 13, No. 4, 587-598 (2006; Zbl 1133.53023)] reduced the problem of finding plane billiards for which the billiard ball map has an invariant curve consisting of \(n\)-periodic trajectories to a problem of sub-Riemannian geometry and proved, by using this reduction, that the space of billiard tables meeting this condition is infinite-dimensional. In the present paper this idea is applied to outer billiards and, in particular, it is proved that the set of outer billiards sufficiently close to a circular one and possesing invariant curves consisting of \(n\)-periodic orbits with rotation number \(k\) such that \(n \geq 3\), \(1 \leq k \leq n/2\), and \(\text{GCD}(n,k)=1\), contains a smooth infinite-dimensional Hilbert manifold.