Geometry of geodesics for convex billiards and circular billards. (Q1396062)

Let \(C : [0,L] \to \mathbb R^2\) be a smooth, convex, unit speed closed curve of length \(L\). One considers the billiard trajectories in \(C\) defined by broken straight lines for which the angle of incidence is the angle of reflection. A point \((x,u)\) of the phase space \(X = C \times (-1, 1)\) defines the billiard trajectory \(b = b(x,u)\) emanating from \(x\) for which \(u\) is the cosine of the angle at \(x\) between \(b\) and \(C\). The billiard ball map \(B : C \to C\) takes an initial value \((x,u)\) to the value \((x',u')\) defined by the trajectory \(b(x,u)\) when it first hits \(C\). A curve \(f\) in \(X\) is said to be simple if \(f\) is homeomorphic to a point, a bounded closed interval in \(\mathbb R\) or a circle. The author characterizes circles by various properties of the space of billiard trajectories defined by \(C\) and \(B\). Most of these characterizations are corollaries of the following main result. Theorem. The following statements are equivalent for \(C\): 1) \(C\) is a circle. 2) The phase space \(X\) of \(C\) admits a foliation \(F\) by simple curves such \(F\) is a closed subset of the space of all closed subsets of \(X\) and \(B(f) = f\) for all \(f\) in \(F\). The methods in the article are closely related to methods used to characterize flat metrics on the 2-torus, starting with the work of E. Hopf in the 1940's. The methods also involve the ideas of H. Busemann for studying geodesics and the adaptation of these ideas by V. Bangert to the configuration space of billiard trajectories defined by \(C\).