On infinitely many foliations by caustics in strictly convex open billiards

DOI10.1017/ETDS.2023.42arXiv2104.01362OpenAlexW4309671503MaRDI QIDQ6364464FDOQ6364464

Authors: Alexey A. Glutsyuk 

Publication date: 3 April 2021

Abstract: Reflection in strictly convex bounded planar billiard acts on the space of oriented lines and preserves a standard area form. A caustic is a curve $C$ whose tangent lines are reflected by the billiard to lines tangent to $C$. The famous Birkhoff Conjecture states that the only strictly convex billiards with a foliation by closed caustics near the boundary are ellipses. By Lazutkin's theorem, there always exists a Cantor family of closed caustics approaching the boundary. In the present paper we deal with an open billiard, whose boundary is a strictly convex embedded (non-closed) curve $gamma$. We prove that there exists a domain $U$ adjacent to $gamma$ from the convex side and a $C^{i}nfty$-smooth foliation of $Ucupgamma$ whose leaves are $gamma$ and (non-closed) caustics of the billiard. This generalizes a previous result by R.Melrose, which yields existence of a germ of foliation as above at a boundary point. We show that there exists a continuum of above foliations by caustics whose germs at each point in $gamma$ are pairwise different. We prove a more general version of this statement in the cases, when $gamma$ is just an arc, and also when both $gamma$ and the caustics are immersed curves. It also applies to a billiard bounded by a closed strictly convex curve $gamma$ and yields infinitely many "immersed" foliations by immersed caustics. For the proof of the above results, we state and prove their analogue for a special class of area-preserving maps generalizing billiard reflections: the so-called $C^{infty}$-lifted strongly billiard-like maps. We also prove a series of results on conjugacy of billiard maps near the boundary for open curves of the above type.

Full work available at URL: https://doi.org/10.1017/etds.2023.42

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Mathematics Subject Classification ID

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

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