Deterministic approximations of random reflectors

Abstract

Within classical optics, one may add microscopic "roughness" to a macroscopically flat mirror so that parallel rays of a given angle are reflected at different outgoing angles. Taking the limit (as the roughness becomes increasingly microscopic) one obtains a flat surface that reflects randomly, i.e., the transition from incoming to outgoing ray is described by a probability kernel (whose form depends on the nature of the microscopic roughness). We consider two-dimensional optics (a.k.a. billiards) and show that every random reflector on a line that satisfies a necessary measure-preservation condition (well established in the theory of billiards) can be approximated by deterministic reflectors in this way.