λ-stability of periodic billiard orbits

Abstract

Abstract. We introduce a new notion of stability for periodic orbits in polygonal billiards. We say that a periodic orbit of a polygonal billiard is λ-stable if there is a periodic orbit for the corresponding pinball billiard which converges to it as λ → 1. This notion of stability is unrelated to the notion introduced by Galperin, Stepin and Vorobets. We give sufficient and necessary conditions for a periodic orbit to be λ-stable and prove that the set of d-gons having at most finite number of λ-stable periodic orbits is dense is the space of d-gons. Moreover, we also determine completely the λ-stable periodic orbits in integrable polygons.