Title:  You can hear the shape of a polygonal billiard table

Time:  Friday,  4:00 pM - 5:00 PM

Abstract: Consider a polygon-shaped billiard table on which a ball can roll along straight lines and reflect off of edges infinitely. In work joint with Moon Duchin, Viveka Erlandsson, and Chris Leininger, we have characterized the relationship between the shape of a polygonal billiard table and the set of possible infinite edge itineraries of balls traveling on it. In this talk, we will explore this relationship and the tools used in our characterization (notably new rigidity results for cone metrics). 

Bio: Chandrika Sadanand is an Assistant Professor at Bowdoin College, where she has worked since 2021. She studies low-dimensional topology and geometry. In particular, she is usually thinking about curves on surfaces, hyperbolic geometry, billiards, flat surfaces, and 3-manifolds.