Shortest periodic billiard trajectories in convex bodies (Q1889810)

In 2000, the following problem was raised by S. Zelditch: is it true that every shortest periodic billiard trajectory in a bi-axisymmetric smooth planar convex body is a ``bouncing ball orbit'', i.e. has two links. The paper under review concerns a much more general situation: a body considered is an arbitrary centrally symmetric convex body in \(\text{ R}^n\). The main result, Theorem 1.2, implies the positive answer to the question even in this general situation (Corollary 1.3). Theorem 1.2. Let \(K \subset \text{ R}^n\) be a convex body and let \(T\) be a periodic billiard trajectory in \(K\). Then \[ \text{ length}(T) \geq 4 \text{inradius}(K). \] Further, the equality holds for some \(T\) if and only if \[ \text{ width}(K) = 2 \;\text{inradius}(K). \] In this case every shortest periodic trajectory of \(K\) is a bouncing ball orbit. Remark: Let us note that ``width of \(K\)'' is understood here as a synonym of ``thickness of \(K\)'', i.e. the lower bound of \(\text{ width}(K,u)\), the width of \(K\) in direction of \(u \in S^{n-1}\).