Maximizing orbits for higher-dimensional convex billiards

DOI10.3934/JMD.2009.3.51MaRDI QIDQ2268262zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Misha Bialy

Publication date 10 March 2010

Published in Journal of Modern Dynamics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Copyright license Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/0808.3208

zbMATH Keywords

conjugate pointsconvex billiardsvariational construction of orbits

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Completely integrable finite-dimensional Hamiltonian systems, integration methods, integrability tests (37J35)

Abstract: The main result of this paper is, that for convex billiards in higher dimensions, in contrast with 2D case, for every point on the boundary and for every $n$ there always exist billiard trajectories developing conjugate points at the $n$-th collision with the boundary. We shall explain that this is a consequence of the following variational property of the billiard orbits in higher dimension. If a segment of an orbit is locally maximizing, then it can not pass too close to the boundary. This fact follows from the second variation formula for the Length functional. It turns out that this formula behaves differently with respect to "longitudinal" and "transversal" variations.

Review text

For two dimensional convex billiards, there are many maximizing billiard configurations. For example, any billiard configuration tangent to a smooth convex caustic is maximizing. Among these, in 2D, it is only for circles that all configurations are maximizing, which means that for any noncircular billiard configurations there exist conjugate points. In this paper, the author shows that in higher dimensions, for convex billiards there always exist billiard configurations with conjugate points. It is shown that in the \(n\)-dimensional case, for every point on the boundary, the presence of the conjugate points on a billiard configuration, appears as the \(n\)-th collision with the boundary and it is a consequence of a variational property of the billiard in higher dimensions.

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Cited in

(7)

• Billiard characterization of spheres
• Hill's formula for g-periodic trajectories of Lagrangian systems
• Gutkin billiard tables in higher dimensions and rigidity
• The 2-link periodic orbits which maximize or minimize the length of ap-dimensional Birkhoff billiard are hyperbolic
• Locally maximising orbits for the non-standard generating function of convex billiards and applications
• Billiards in generic convex bodies have positive topological entropy
• Locally maximizing orbits for multi-dimensional twist maps and Birkhoff billiards

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