arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Serge Troubetzkoy.
Two polygons $P,Q$ are code equivalent if there are billiard orbits $u,v$ which hit the same sequence of sides and such that the projections of the orbits are dense in the boundaries $\partial P, \partial Q$. Our main results show when code equivalent polygons have the same angles, resp. are similar, resp. affinely similar.
The straight-line flow on almost every staircase and on almost every square tiled staircase is recurrent. For almost every square tiled staircase the set of periodic orbits is dense in the phase space.
We show that the typical wind-tree model, in the sense of Baire, is recurrent and has a dense set of periodic orbits. The recurrence result also holds for the Lorentz gas : the typical Lorentz gas, in the sense of Baire, is recurrent. These Lorentz gases need not be of finite horizon!
We study periodic wind-tree models, unbounded planar billiards with periodically located rectangular obstacles. For a class of rational parameters we show the existence of completely periodic directions, and recurrence; for another class of rational parameters, there are directions in which all trajectories escape, and we prove a rate of escape for almost all directions. These results extend to a dense $G_δ$ of parameters.
We consider several coding discretizations of continuous functions which reflect their variation at some given precision. We study certain statistical and combinatorial properties of the sequence of finite words obtained by coding a typical continuous function when the diameter of the discretization tends to zero. Our main result is that any finite word appears on a subsequence discretization with any desired limit frequency.
We introduce a new equivalence relation on the set of all polygonal billiards. We say that two billiards (or polygons) are order equivalent if each of the billiards has an orbit whose footpoints are dense in the boundary and the two sequences of footpoints of these orbits have the same combinatorial order. We study this equivalence relation with additional regularity conditions on the orbit.
We study the notion of Fagnano orbits for dual polygonal billiards. We used them to characterize regular polygons and we study the iteration of the developing map.
This survey is based on a series of talks I gave at the conference "Dynamical systems and diophantine approximation" at l'Instut Henri Poincaré in June 2003. I will present asymptotic results (transitivity, ergodicity, weak-mixing) for billiards based on the approximation technique developed by Katok and Zemlyakov. I will also present approximation techniques which allow to prove the abundance of periodic trajectories in certain irrational polygons.
Let $μ$ be a Gibbs measure of the doubling map $T$ of the circle. For a $μ$-generic point $x$ and a given sequence $\{r_n\} \subset \R^+$, consider the intervals $(T^nx - r_n \pmod 1, T^nx + r_n \pmod 1)$. In analogy to the classical Dvoretzky covering of the circle we study the covering properties of this sequence of intervals. This study is closely related to the local entropy function of the Gibbs measure and to hitting times for moving targets. A mass transference principle is obtained for Gibbs measures which are multifractal. Such a principle was shown by Beresnevich and Velani \cite{BV} only for monofractal measures. In the symbolic language we completely describe the combinatorial structure of a typical relatively short sequence, in particular we can describe the occurrence of ''atypical'' relatively long words. Our results have a direct and deep number-theoretical interpretation via inhomogeneous diadic diophantine approximation by numbers belonging to a given (diadic) diophantine class.
For general quantum systems the semiclassical behaviour of eigenfunctions in relation to the ergodic properties of the underlying classical system is quite difficult to understand. The Wignerfunctions of eigenstates converge weakly to invariant measures of the classical system, the so called quantum limits, and one would like to understand which invariant measures can occur that way, thereby classifying the semiclassical behaviour of eigenfunctions. We introduce a class of maps on the torus for whose quantisations we can understand the set of quantum limits in great detail. In particular we can construct examples of ergodic maps which have singular ergodic measures as quantum limits, and examples of non-ergodic maps where arbitrary convex combinations of absolutely continuous ergodic measures can occur as quantum limits. The maps we quantise are obtained by cutting and stacking.
For a Veech surface (x,ω), we characterize subspaces of X^n, invariant under the diagonal action of the affine group of X. We prove that non-arithmetic Veech surfaces have only finitely many invariant subspaces of very particular shape (in any dimension). Among other consequences we find copies of (X,ω) embedded in the moduli-space of translation surfaces. We study illumination problems in (pre-)lattice surfaces. For (X,ω) prelattice we prove the at most countableness of points non-illuminable from any x in X. Applying our results on invariant subspaces we prove the finiteness of these sets when (X,ω) is Veech.
Periodic billiard orbits are dense in the phase space of an irrational right triangle. A stronger pointwise density result is also proven.
There is an open set of right triangles such that for each irrational triangle in this set (i) periodic billiards orbits are dense in the phase space, (ii) there is a unique nonsingular perpendicular billiard orbit which is not periodic, and (iii) the perpendicular periodic orbits fill the corresponding invariant surface.
Introducing the rotor interaction in the integrable system of the annulus billiard produces a variety of dynamical phenomena, from integrability to ergodicity.
We prove the hyperbolicity, ergodicity and thus the Bernoulli property of two hard balls in one of the following four polygons: the square, the equilateral triangle, the $45-45-90^\circ$ triangle or the $30-60-90^\circ$ triangle.
For a given rotation number we compute the Hausdorff dimension of the set of well approximable numbers. We use this result and an inhomogeneous version of Jarnik's theorem to show strong recurrence properties of the billiard flow in certain polygons
We prove that return time statistics of a dynamical system do not change if one passes to an induced (i.e. first return) map. We apply this to show exponential return time statistics in i) smooth interval maps with nowhere-dense critical orbits and ii) certain interval maps with neutral fixed points. The method also applies to iii) certain quadratic maps of the complex plane.
We discuss some properties of a class of cellular automata sometimes called a "generalized ant". This system is perhaps most easily understood by thinking of an ant which moves about a lattice in the plane. At each vertex (or "cell"), the ant turns right or left, depending on the the state of the cell, and then changes the state of the cell according to certain prescribed rule strings. (This system has been the subject of several Mathematical Entertainments columns in the Mathematical Intelligencer; this article will be a future such column). At various times, the distributions of the states of the cells for certain ants is bilaterally symmetric; we categorize a class of ants for which this is the case and give a proof using Truchet tiles.