Periodic billiard trajectories in smooth convex bodies (Q1034686)

Let \(T\) be a smooth convex body in \(\mathbb R^d\) with \(\dim T=d\). A billiard trajectory \(T\subset\mathbb R^d\) is a polygon \(P\subset T\) with all vertices on the boundary of \(T\) and such that the direction of the line changes at each vertex according to the elastic reflection rule. The number of vertices of \(P\) is called the length of \(P\). The authors give a lower bound on the number of distinct periodic trajectories that make exactly \(p\) reflections per period at the boundary of \(T\). They prove the following theorem. Theorem. Suppose that \(T\subset\mathbb R^d\) is a smooth convex body with \(\dim T=d\), \(d \geq 3,\) and that \(p>2\) is prime. Then there are at least \((d-2)(p-1)+2\) distinct periodic billiard trajectories of length \(p\) in \(T\). The proof is carried out by determining the cohomology ring of the configuration spaces that arise in billiard questions. The Lusternik-Schnirelmann category is also used.