Pseudo-Riemannian geodesics and billiards

Abstract

Many classical facts in Riemannian geometry have their pseudo-Riemannian analogs. For instance, the spaces of space-like and time-like geodesics on a pseudo-Riemannian manifold have natural symplectic structures (just like in the Riemannian case), while the space of light-like geodesics has a natural contact structure. We discuss the geometry of these structures in detail, as well as introduce and study pseudo-Euclidean billiards. In particular, we prove pseudo-Euclidean analogs of the Jacobi-Chasles theorems and show the integrability of the billiard in the ellipsoid and the geodesic flow on the ellipsoid in a pseudo-Euclidean space.