Quadratic integrals of geodesic flow, webs, and integrable billiards (Q2223760)

The article deals with the geometry of special geodesic flows on a two-dimensional Riemann surface. Flows admitting quadratic integrals are characterized in terms of web theory. Earlier, the author of the article proved Theorem 1: a surface carries a hexagonal geodesic 3-web if and only if the geodesic flow on this surface admits a cubic first integral with distinct real roots (this statement is a generalization of the well-known Graf-Sauer theorem from the theory of 3-webs). Here the following statements is proved (Theorem 4): the geodesic flow on a surface admits a quadratic first integral if and only if the surface carries a geodesic net G such that one (and therefore any) 3-subweb of the 4-web constituted by the net G and bisector net N is hexagonal or, equivalently, such that the net N is conformally flat. Theorem 2 allows to construct integrable billiards similar to classical billiards in ellipses on the Euclidean plane. For example, such a billiard arises if the 4-web is formed by confocal conics and tangent lines to one of these conics. (Such a 4-web is locally diffeomorphic to a 4-web formed by 4 pencils of lines whose vertices are collinear and form a harmonic quadruple.) Other examples are also given, in particular, billiards for which the Poncelet porism holds. Reviewer's remark: It is well known that the metric admitting a quadratic integral is Liouville metric, and the Liouville net is the bisector net for $\infty$ geodesic nets.