Gravitational billiards bouncing inside general domains -- foci curves and confined domains

Abstract

A massive particle under the influence of a constant gravitational force that is bouncing inside an ideal reflecting mirror described by some function $f(x)$ is considered. For the associated flight trajectories we derive the parametric curves, named foci curves. All foci points of the parabolas for a given initial position and energy lie on these curves. From these foci curves the associated flight parabola envelopes are derived resulting, together with the mirror surface, in a confined domain for all possible particle trajectories in the non-periodic orbit case. The general results are briefly discussed and visualized for three concrete mirror surfaces.