You can hear the shape of a billiard table: Symbolic dynamics and rigidity for flat surfaces

Abstract

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.

v2: Updated language and references, including a reference for the flat strip theorem. v3: Added a section describing how the bounce spectrum can be determined given the countable set of bounce sequences of generalized diagonals. v4: Stylistic edits