Chaos in polygonal billiards

Seminar: 
Group Actions and Dynamics
Event time: 
Monday, April 28, 2025 - 4:00pm
Location: 
KT 207
Speaker: 
Francisco Arana-Herrera
Speaker affiliation: 
University of Maryland
Event description: 

We discuss how chaos, i.e., sensitivity to initial conditions, arises in the setting of polygonal billiards. In particular, we give a complete classification of the rational polygons whose billiard flow is weak mixing in almost every direction, proving a longstanding conjecture of Gutkin. This is joint work with Jon Chaika and Giovanni Forni. No previous knowledge on the subject will be assumed.