Hyperbolic billiards on surfaces of constant curvature (Q1969098)

Billiards form a class of dynamical systems that can exhibit different types of behaviour: from integrable to chaotic. From geometric point of view a billiard is a geodesic flow on a manifold with boundary. A billiard with non-vanishing Lyapunov exponents is called hyperbolic billiard. There is a great amount of literature on hyperbolic planar billiards. In the present paper the authors study hyperbolic billiards on simply connected surfaces of constant curvature (mainly the plane, the sphere and the hyperbolic plane). Their study is motivated by recent advances in semiconductor fabrication techniques. Namely, many properties of solid state devices manufactured by means of these new techniques can be derived using billiards as simplified models. The framework of study of the billiards on surfaces of constant curvature is as follows: one considers a simply connected surface \(M\) of constant curvature and a connected subset \(Q\) in \(M\) as the billiard table, having a piecewise smooth boundary \(\partial Q\) of length \(L\). A cross section \(V:\partial Q\to TQ\), \(V(p)=(p,w)\), where \(w\) is a unit vector pointing inside \(Q\), defines the phase space of the billiard system, \(V\equiv V(\partial Q)\). The billiard map \(\varphi:V\to V\) is the first return map associated to the cross section. The standard coordinates on the phase space \(V\) are \(v(l,\theta)\), where \(l\) is the arclength on \(\partial Q\) and \(\theta\in[0,\pi]\) is the angle between the vector \(w\) and \(\partial Q\). The natural probability measure \(\mu=(2L)^{-1}\sin\theta dl d\theta\) is an invariant measure for the billiard map \(\varphi\). In order to state and prove the main result of the paper, the authors define the so called projectivization set \(B\) of the tangent manifold to \(V\). The differential of the billiard map will be related to \(B\). Intuitively, \(B\) is the set of straight lines in the tangent planes \(T_{v}V\), \(v\in V\). Inspired by geometrical optics the authors define an infinitesimal beam as the set of geodesics which intersect a given oriented curve \(\gamma\subset M\) infinitesimally close to a point \(m\in M\). An infinitesimal beam is completely determined by the normal unit vector \(v\in T_{m}M\) to \(\gamma\), and by the geodesic curvature \(\chi\) of \(\gamma\) at \(m\). The infinitesimal beam is denoted by \(b(v,\chi)\). Infinitesimal beams give a geometric realization of the space \(B\). If \(p:B\to V\) is the natural projection, each fibre \(p^{-1}(v)\equiv B_{v}\) is isomorphic to the projective line. Hence \(\chi\in \mathbb{R}\cup\infty\) is the projective coordinate on \(B_{v}\). So \(B_{v}=\{b(v,\chi)\mid \chi\in \mathbb{R}\cup \infty\}\). Defining a generalized two-periodic trajectory (g.t.p.t.) of a billiard map \(\phi:V\to V\) the authors introduce in terms of this notion, special points in the billiard phase space: B-hyperbolic points, B-parabolic points, B-unstable and eventually strictly B-unstable points. The main result of the paper states: Let \(Q\) be a billiard table on a surface of constant curvature, \(\Phi:V\to V\) the billiard map, and \(\mu\) the natural \(\Phi\)-invariant probability measure \(\mu\) on \(V\). If \(\mu\)-almost every point in \(V\) is eventually strictly B-unstable, then the billiard system is hyperbolic. In order to prove this theorem some necessary and sufficient conditions for a g.t.p.t to be B-unstable are derived. Based on the main theorem and its corollaries, constructions of several classes of billiard tables with hyperbolic dynamics on the sphere and on the hyperbolic plane are given. The general principles for the design of billiard tables satisfying the conditions of the main theorem are also outlined.