Insecure configurations in lattice translation surfaces, with applications to polygonal billiards (Q862106)

From the work of \textit{A. B. Katok} and \textit{A. N. Zemlyakov} [Math. Notes 18(1975), 760--764 (1976; Zbl 0323.58012) and ibid. 20(1976), 1051 (1977; Zbl 0348.58010)] it is shown that billiard dynamics in an arbitrary polygon \(P\subset\mathbb{R}^2\) is essentially equivalent to the geodesic flow on a closed oriented surface \(S= S(P)\). That surface is equipped with a flat Riemannian metric with special singularities. This paper first considers finite geodesics on a Riemannian manifold \(X\) that may have singularities. The authors define a blocking set \(B\) for the collection \(\Gamma\) of finite geodesics on \(X\) to be a finite set for which every geodesic in \(\Gamma\) passes through a point of \(B\). Further, a geodesic \(\gamma\) for a configuration \(\{x,y\}\) of two points in \(X\) is called connecting if \(x\) and \(y\) are the endpoints and \(\gamma\) does not pass through \(x\) or \(y\). A configuration \(\{x,y\}\) is called secure if there exists a blocking set for all geodesics connecting \(x\) and \(y\). Otherwise, the configuration is called insecure. A space \(X\) is secure if every configuration is secure. The authors investigate how large the set of insecure configurations can be in an insecure space. They consider this problem for flat surfaces -- especially translation surfaces and polygons -- via measure theory. The primary results are as follows: If \(X\) is a lattice translation surface or a lattice polygon, then either the surface (or polygon) is arithmetic and all configurations are secure, or the surface (or polygon) is nonarithmetic and almost all configurations are insecure.