A ``transversal'' fundamental theorem for semi-dispersing billiards (Q810969)

A billiard is a dynamical system describing the motion of a point particle in a connected, compact domain \(Q\subset {\mathbb{R}}^ d\) or \(T^ d\), \(d\geq 2\), with a piecewise \(C^ 2\)-smooth boundary \(\partial Q\). Inside Q motion is uniform while reflection at \(\partial Q\) is elastic. A billiard is semi-dispersing if the second fundamental form of the boundary K(q)\(\geq 0\forall q\in \partial Q\) (or dispersing if \(K(q)>0\forall q\in \partial Q)\), i.e. the boundary is not strictly (or strictly) convex. A Fundamental Theorem, which provides an ample set of not-too-short local stable and unstable manifolds, was proved for semi-dispersing billiards by Sinai and Chernov in 1987 [\textit{Ya. G. Sinaj} and \textit{N. I. Chernov}, Russ. Math. Surv. 42, No.3, 181-207 (1987); translation from Usp. Mat. Nauk 42, No.3(255), 153-174 (1987; Zbl 0644.58007)]. This establishes that a suitable open neighbourhood of a phase point possessing a sufficiently rich trajectory structure belongs to one ergodic component (local ergodicity). However, to prove global ergodicity requires a ``transversal'' fundamental theorem, in which the use of an unstable foliation is relaxed to an arbitrary smooth foliation that is transversal to the stable foliation. For the application to semi-dispersing billiards the sufficiency assumption is also relaxed to the minimal form that implies local hyperbolicity. This paper primarily gives an elaborated proof of the transversal version of the fundamental theorem of Sinai and Chernov. However, this version also makes explicit the assumptions about the subsets of degenerate tangencies and double singularities (which are easily verified in all applications made to date, and hold obviously for hard balls). A modified definition of ``bad parallelograms'' resolves a small gap in the original proof, and a more natural definition of the distance from a singularity based on the Poincaré section map is used. Two main corollaries are proved under the present weaker assumptions: the Zig-Zag Theorem [the authors, Nonlinearity 2, No.2, 311-326 (1989; Zbl 0676.58038)] and one on local ergodicity. The geometry of the invariant manifolds and the set of singularities of semi-dispersing billiards is discussed in terms of the Poincaré section map. As an application, the following theorem is proved: Every dispersing billiard with \(Q\subset T^ d\), \(d\geq 2\), which satisfies the condition that the set of phase points in whose trajectory the moments of reflections accumulate in a finite time interval form a residual set, is a K-system. This is then specialized to a particular billiard with two finite elastic balls. [See also the erratum in ibid. 138, 207-208 (1991; see the paper below)].