On the finite blocking property

DOI10.5802/AIF.2124zbMATH Open1076.37029arXivmath/0406510OpenAlexW1800062567MaRDI QIDQ2485445FDOQ2485445

Authors: Thierry Monteil 

Publication date: 4 August 2005

Published in: Annales de l’institut Fourier (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: A planar polygonal billiard $P$ is said to have the finite blocking property if for every pair $(O,A)$ of points in $P$ there exists a finite number of ``blocking points $B_1,\mathrm{...},B_n$ such that every billiard trajectory from $O$ to $A$ meets one of the $B_i$'s. Generalizing our construction of a counter-example to a theorem of Hiemer and Snurnikov (see cite{Mo}), we show that the only regular polygons that have the finite blocking property are the square, the equilateral triangle and the hexagon. Then we extend this result to translation surfaces. We prove that the only Veech surfaces with the finite blocking property are the torus branched coverings. We also provide a local sufficient condition for a translation surface to fail the finite blocking property. This enables us to give a complete classification for the L-shaped surfaces as well as to obtain a density result in the space of translation surfaces in every genus $ggeq2$.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/math/0406510

Recommendations

• A counter-example to the theorem of Hiemer and Snurnikov
• Everything is illuminated
• Polygonal billiards with small obstacles
• Finite blocking property versus pure periodicity
• Blocking of billiard orbits and security for polygons and flat surfaces

zbMATH Keywords

quadratic differentialstranslation surfacesilluminationblocking propertyregular polygonspolygonal billiardsVeech surfacestorus branched covering

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Dynamical systems involving one-parameter continuous families of measure-preserving transformations (37A10) Differentials on Riemann surfaces (30F30) Flows on surfaces (37E35) Real and complex geometry (51M99)

Cites Work

• Ergodicity of billiard flows and quadratic differentials
• Planar structures and billiards in rational polygons: the Veech alternative
• Connected components of the moduli spaces of Abelian differentials with prescribed singularities
• Title not available (Why is that?)
• Billiards and Teichmüller curves on Hilbert modular surfaces
• Title not available (Why is that?)
• Title not available (Why is that?)
• Polygonal Rooms Not Illuminable from Every Point
• Teichmüller curves in moduli space, Eisenstein series and an application to triangular billiards
• Topological transitivity of billiards in polygons
• Title not available (Why is that?)
• Title not available (Why is that?)
• Veech surfaces and complete periodicity in genus two
• A counter-example to the theorem of Hiemer and Snurnikov
• Asymptotics of numbers of branched coverings of a torus and volumes of moduli spaces of holomorphic differentials
• Title not available (Why is that?)
• Finite blocking property versus pure periodicity
• Polygonal billiards with small obstacles

Cited In (12)

• Blocking of billiard orbits and security for polygons and flat surfaces
• On blockers in continua
• Central points of the double heptagon translation surface are not connection points
• Algebraic intersection for a family of Veech surfaces
• Everything is illuminated
• Marked points on translation surfaces
• A dense \(G\)-delta set of Riemannian metrics without the finite blocking property
• Blocking light in compact Riemannian manifolds
• Finite blocking property versus pure periodicity
• Periodic points on the regular and double \(n\)-gon surfaces
• A characterization of completeness of blockability relations with respect to unanimity
• Blocking: new examples and properties of products

This page was built for publication: On the finite blocking property

Report a bug (only for logged in users!)Click here to report a bug for this page (MaRDI item Q2485445)