Bicentennial of the Great Poncelet Theorem (1813–2013): Current advances

DOI10.1090/S0273-0979-2014-01437-5zbMATH Open1417.37034arXiv1212.6867OpenAlexW2963755102MaRDI QIDQ2933817FDOQ2933817

Vladimir Dragović, Milena Radnović

Publication date: 8 December 2014

Published in: Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: The paper gives a review of very recent results related to the Poncelet Theorem, on the occasion of its bicentennial. We are telling the story of one of the most beautiful theorems of Geometry, recalling for the general mathematical audience the dramatic historic circumstances which led to its discovery, a glimpse of its intrinsic appeal, and importance of its relationship to the dynamics of billiards within confocal conics. We focus on the three main issues: A) The case of Pseudo-Euclidean spaces, presenting a recent notion of relativistic quadrics, and applying it to the description of periodic trajectories of billiards within quadrics. B) The relationship between so-called billiard algebra and foundations of modern discrete differential geometry which leads to the Double-reflection nets. C) We introduce a new class of dynamical systems -- pseudo-integrable billiards generated by the boundary composed of several arcs of confocal conics having nonconvex angles. The dynamics of such billiards has several extraordinary properties. They are related to the interval exchange transformations and generate families of flows which are minimal but not uniquely ergodic. This type of dynamics provides a novel type of the Poncelet porisms -- the local ones.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/1212.6867

zbMATH Keywords

periodic billiard trajectoriesPoncelet theorempencils of quadricsinterval exchange transformationsintegrable line congruencesreflection nets

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

History of mathematics in the 19th century (01A55) Completely integrable finite-dimensional Hamiltonian systems, integration methods, integrability tests (37J35) Relationships between algebraic curves and integrable systems (14H70) History of geometry (51-03) History of dynamical systems and ergodic theory (37-03)

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