Mathematics Colloquium: Billiards

Speaker Carlos Matheus Silva Santos, CNRS

Title: Billiards

Abstract:   Dynamical billiards were designed to serve as simpler models for intricate phenomena in Statistical Mechanics. Nevertheless, the body of research developed over the last 100 years taught us that the family of dynamical billiards is rich enough to exhibit all complicated behaviors (elliptic, parabolic and hyperbolic) described by the modern theory of Dynamical Systems. In this talk, after briefly recalling the link between dynamical billiards and Lorentz ideal gases in Statistical Mechanics, we will discuss billiards on ellipses, billiards on rational polygons, and Sinai billiards as an excuse to make a tour around the theories of elliptic, parabolic and hyperbolic systems.

Time:  Friday, March 29, 3:30pm – 4:30pm

Place:  Exploratory Hall, room 4106

Zoom and In-person