Counting periodic trajectories of Finsler billiards (Q1987293)

Let \(M\) be a strictly convex smooth closed hypersurface in a \(d\)-dimensional Finsler space with possibly irreversible Finsler metric. In particular, \(M\) is diffeomorphic to the sphere \(S^{d-1}\). The authors are interested in \(r\)-periodic Finsler billiard trajectories. These correspond to critical points of the length function \(\Lambda(x_1,\dots,x_r)=f(x_1,x_2)+\dots+f(x_r,x_1)\) where \(f\) denotes the distance in the Finsler space. The main theorem yields lower bounds on the number of \(\mathbb{Z}_r\)-orbits of \(r\)-periodic trajectories. It extends results in the Riemannian setting from [\textit{M.-C. Arnaud}, Nonlinearity 15, No. 6, 1755--1758 (2002; Zbl 1013.37032); \textit{M. Farber} and \textit{S. Tabachnikov}, Manuscr. Math. 108, No. 4, 431--437 (2002; Zbl 1087.37052); Topology 41, No. 3, 553--589 (2002; Zbl 1006.37038); \textit{R. N. Karasev}, Geom. Funct. Anal. 19, No. 2, 423--428 (2009; Zbl 1184.37031)]. The proofs are based on Morse and Lusternik-Schnirelmann theories.