Mathematics Colloquium - 31 May

[Emanuele Tuillier Illingworth]

MATHEMATICS COLLOQUIUM


Speaker: Professor Corinna Ulcigrai, Bristol University
Time: 2pm  Tuesday 31st of May
Room: 005 (SISSA, ground floor)

Title: Planar billiards and infinite periodic surfaces dynamics

Abstract: Mathematical billiards arise naturally in the study of several 
problems in physics (such as the Lorentz gas or the Ehrenfest model) and 
are an idealization of the billiard game in special shaped "tables". We 
will focus on polygonal billiards and explain how their study is 
connected to the study of "flat" surfaces and their moduli space. The 
study of chaotic properties of billiard trajectories in rational 
polygons and the associated compact flat surfaces has been a topical and 
successful area of research for the past 30 years thanks to the 
beautiful connection with Teichmueller dynamics. Only very recently, 
though, there have been breakthroughs in our understanding of the 
Ehrenfest model, systems of Eaton lenses and other infinite periodic 
billiards and the associated infinite periodic flat surfaces. We will in 
particular survey some recent progress in this area.