Billiards in polyhedra: a method to convert 2-dimensional uniformity to 3-dimensional uniformity

Abstract

The class of 2-dimensional non-integrable flat dynamical systems has a rather extensive literature with many deep results, but the methods developed for this type of problems, both the traditional approach via Teichm\"{u}ller geometry and our recent shortline-ancestor method, appear to be exclusively plane-specific. Thus we know very little of any real significance concerning 3-dimensional systems. Our purpose here is to describe some very limited extensions of uniformity in 2 dimensions to uniformity in 3 dimensions. We consider a 3-manifold which is the cartesian product of the regular octagonal surface with the unit torus. This is a restricted system, in the sense that one of the directions is integrable. However, this restriction also allows us to make use of a transference theorem for arithmetic progressions established earlier by Beck, Donders and Yang.