Density of a thin film billiard reflection pseudogroup in a Hamiltonian symplectomorphism pseudogroup (Q6584675)

The author considers billiards in Euclidean spaces: a hypersurface \(\gamma \subset \mathbb{R}^{n+1}\), either a strictly convex closed hypersurface or a germ of a hypersurface. He examines compositional ratios of reflections from \(\gamma\) and reflections from its small deformations. In [Journal of Nonlinear Science 29, 621--642 (2019; Zbl 1415.70032)], \textit{R. Perline} studied reflections between two mirrors in the limit as they approach one another (creating a ``thin film'' between them), showed that derivatives with respect to the displacement parameter give rise to Hamiltonian vector fields, and calculated their Hamiltonian functions.\N\NIn the current paper, the author shows that the Lie algebra generated by these Hamiltonian vector fields (or symplectic vector fields in the case where \(\gamma\) is the germ of a curve) is dense in the Lie algebra of Hamiltonian vector fields. Then he considers the pseudogroup generated by the compositional ratios of reflections. For strictly convex closed hypersurfaces he shows that the \(C^\infty\) closure of this pseudogroup contains the pseudogroup of Hamiltonian symplectomorphisms between open subdomains of the phase cylinder (the space of oriented lines intersecting \(\gamma\) transversally). An analogous result holds for germs of hypersurfaces.\N\NThe author also proves similar results for hypersurfaces of Riemannian manifolds.