The Mathematical Colloquium: Jayadev Athreya

Abstract: Consider the motion of a billiard ball on a frictionless table shaped like a regular N-gon, where the ball collides with the sides elastically. Labeling the sides 1, 2, ... N. A billiard word is a possible sequence of bounces, and the billiard language is the collection of billiard words. The question we consider is how does the number of billiard words of length K grow as K grows? We will give an asymptotic answer to this question, and also give information of what happens as N goes to infinity. No prior background is assumed, and there will be lots of pictures. This is joint work with Pascal Hubert and Serge Troubetzkoy.

Mathematical Colloquium with Jayadev Athreya.

Everyone is welcome!