Shortest billiard trajectories

DOI10.1007/S10711-009-9353-6zbMATH Open1169.52002arXiv1110.4324OpenAlexW2154814126MaRDI QIDQ833347FDOQ833347

Authors: Dániel Bezdek, Károly Bezdek 

Publication date: 12 August 2009

Published in: Geometriae Dedicata (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: In this paper we prove that any convex body of the d-dimensional Euclidean space (d>1) possesses at least one shortest generalized billiard trajectory moreover, any of its shortest generalized billiard trajectories is of period at most d+1. Actually, in the Euclidean plane we improve this theorem as follows. A disk-polygon with parameter r>0 is simply the intersection of finitely many (closed) circular disks of radii r, called generating disks, having some interior point in common in the Euclidean plane. Also, we say that a disk-polygon with parameter r>0 is a fat disk-polygon if the pairwise distances between the centers of its generating disks are at most r. We prove that any of the shortest generalized billiard trajectories of an arbitrary fat disk-polygon is a 2-periodic one. Also, we give a proof of the analogue result for {epsilon}-rounded disk-polygons obtained from fat disk-polygons by rounding them off using circular disks of radii {epsilon}>0. Our theorems give partial answers to the very recent question raised by S. Zelditch on characterizing convex bodies whose shortest periodic billiard trajectories are of period 2.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/1110.4324

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Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Convex sets in (n) dimensions (including convex hypersurfaces) (52A20) Inequalities and extremum problems involving convexity in convex geometry (52A40) Discrete geometry (52C99)

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Cited In (13)

• Elementary approach to closed billiard trajectories in asymmetric normed spaces
• The Minkowski billiard characterization of the EHZ-capacity of convex Lagrangian products
• Periodic ellipsoidal billiard trajectories and extremal polynomials
• Shortest closed billiard trajectories in the plane and equality cases in Mahler's conjecture
• On continuous billiard and quasigeodesic flows characterizing alcoves and isosceles tetrahedra
• A regularity result for shortest generalized billiard trajectories in convex bodies in \(\mathbb{R}^n\)
• Shortest closed billiard orbits on convex tables
• Discrete geometry. Abstracts from the workshop held August 31 -- September 6, 2014.
• Extremal convex polygons inscribed in a given convex polygon
• Billiards in convex bodies with acute angles
• An analogue of the Blaschke-Santaló inequality for billiard dynamics
• Shortest periodic billiard trajectories in convex bodies
• From the Kneser-Poulsen conjecture to ball-polyhedra

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