On curves with the Poritsky property (Q2139549)

This seminal paper focuses on the Poritsky property of string constructions. In particular, by ``a tour de force'', it is shown that on every surface of constant curvature, every conic has the Poritsky property, and conversely, every germ of a two times continuously differentiable curve with the Poritsky property has to be a conic. The proofs of these results are very technical and require a considerable amount of knowledge of symplectic differential geometry. A key theorem leading to the above results shows that germs with Poritsky property are uniquely determined by their 4-jets. The paper is written in a survey-type style and contains discussions of many striking results about billiard problems as well.