Isoperiodic families of Poncelet polygons inscribed in a circle and circumscribed about conics from a confocal pencil

Abstract

Poncelet polygons inscribed in a circle and circumscribed about conics from a confocal family naturally arise in the analysis of the numerical range and Blaschke products. We examine the behaviour of such polygons when the inscribed conic varies through a confocal pencil and discover cases when each conic from the confocal family is inscribed in an $n$-polygon, which is inscribed in the circle, with the same $n$. Complete geometric characterization of such cases for $n\in \{4,6\}$ is given and proved that this cannot happen for other values of $n$. We establish a relationship of such families of Poncelet quadrangles and hexagons to solutions of a Painlevé VI equation.

20 pages, 5 figures