Julian Chaidez, USC

Title: Creased contact manifolds and billiard dynamics

Abstract: In the simplest setting, billiard dynamics is the study of the dynamics of a billiard ball as it bounces around elastically within a bounded region in the plane called the table. Billiard dynamics is one of the oldest subjects in dynamical systems, with seminal contributions by Birkhoff, Masur, Katok and others. However, it remains relatively poorly understood when the table is not convex. In this talk, I will explain a framework for studying billiards using the tools from contact geometry and Reeb dynamics. This has many applications to long standing open problems in non-convex billiards. This is in preparation joint work with Shira Tanny.