Konferenzvortragsdetails

Konferenz: Symposium about Pure Mathematics


Mathematical billiards, flows on surfaces and slow chaos

Vortrag von Prof. Dr. Corinna Ulcigrai
Datum: 09.02.17   Zeit: 11.50 - 12.30   Raum: Y27H28

Mathematical billiards, an idealisation of the billiard game in differently shaped "tables", arise naturally from the study of several problems in physics. Billiards in polygonal tables and area preserving flows on surfaces also provide fundamental examples of "slowly chaotic" (entropy zero) dynamical systems; contrary to fast chaotic (hyperbolic) systems. which are classically well understood, there is no universal theory of slowly chaotic systems. We will survey some recent breakthroughs in our understanding of chaotic properties of smooth surface flows and infinite polygonal billiards such as the Ehrenfest model. We will also try to heuristically explain the beautiful connection with Teichmueller dynamics, i.e. the dynamics of a family of deformations on a space of geometric structures.