We identify all translation covers among triangular billiard surfaces. Our main tools are the holonomy field of Kenyon and Smillie and a geometric property of translation surfaces, which we call the fingerprint of a point, that is preserved under balanced translation covers.
In this article we discuss a connection between two famous constructions in mathematics: a Cayley graph of a group and a (rational) billiard surface. For each rational billiard surface, there is a natural way to draw a Cayley graph of a dihedral group on that surface. Both of these objects have the concept of genus attached to them. For the Cayley graph, the genus is defined to be the lowest genus amongst all surfaces that the graph can be drawn on without edge crossings. We prove that the genus of the Cayley graph associated to a billiard surface arising from a triangular billiard table is always zero or one. One reason this is interesting is that there exist triangular billiard surfaces of arbitrarily high genus , so the genus of the associated graph is usually much lower than the genus of the billiard surface.
For each stratum of the space of translation surfaces, we introduce an infinite translation surface containing in an appropriate manner a copy of every translation surface of the stratum. Given a translation surface $(X, omega)$ in the stratum, a matrix is in its Veech group $mathrm{SL}(X,omega)$ if and only if an associated affine automorphism of the infinite surface sends each of a finite set, the ``marked {em Voronoi staples}, arising from orientation-paired segments appropriately perpendicular to Voronoi 1-cells, to another pair of orientation-paired ``marked segments. We prove a result of independent interest. For each real $age sqrt{2}$ there is an explicit hyperbolic ball such that for any Fuchsian group trivially stabilizing $i$, the Dirichlet domain centered at $i$ of the group already agrees within the ball with the intersection of the hyperbolic half-planes determined by the group elements whose Frobenius norm is at most $a$. %When $mathrm{SL}(X,omega)$ is a lattice we use this to give a condition guaranteeing that the full group $mathrm{SL}(X,omega)$ has been computed. Together, these results give rise to a new algorithm for computing Veech groups.
We give a complete characterization of the relationship between the shape of a Euclidean polygon and the symbolic dynamics of its billiard flow. We prove that the only pairs of tables that can have the same bounce spectrum are right-angled tables that differ by an affine map. The main tool is a new theorem that establishes that a flat cone metric is completely determined by the support of its Liouville current.
We study triple covers of K3 surfaces, following Mirandas theory of triple covers. We relate the geometry of the covering surfaces with the properties of both the branch locus and the Tschirnhausen vector bundle. In particular, we classify Galois triple covers computing numerical invariants of the covering surface and of its minimal model. We provide examples of non Galois triple covers, both in the case in which the Tschirnhausen bundle splits into the sum of two line bundles and in the case in which it is an indecomposable rank 2 vector bundle. We provide a criterion to construct rank 2 vector bundles on a K3 surface $S$ which determine a non-Galois triple cover of $S$. The examples presented are in any admissible Kodaira dimension and in particular we provide the constructions of irregular covers of K3 surfaces and of surfaces with geometrical genus equal to 2 whose transcendental Hodge structure splits in the sum of two Hodge structures of K3 type.
Billiard systems, broadly speaking, may be regarded as models of mechanical systems in which rigid parts interact through elastic impulsive (collision) forces. When it is desired or necessary to account for linear/angular momentum exchange in collisions involving a spherical body, a type of billiard system often referred to as no-slip has been used. In recent work, it has become apparent that no-slip billiards resemble non-holonomic mechanical systems in a number of ways. Based on an idea by Borisov, Kilin and Mamaev, we show that no-slip billiards very generally arise as limits of non-holonomic (rolling) systems, in a way that is akin to how ordinary billiards arise as limits of geodesic flows through a flattening of the Riemannian manifold.