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.