On differential equations of integrable billiard tables

Abstract

We introduce a method to find differential equations for functions which define tables, such that associated billiard systems admit a local first integral. We illustrate this method in three situations: the case of (locally) integrable wire billiards, for finding surfaces in ${\mathbb{R}}^3$ with a first integral of degree one in velocities, and for finding a piece-wise smooth surface in ${\mathbb{R}}^3$ homeomorphic to a torus, being a table of an integrable billiard.

9 pages, 2 figures