Numerical study of a three-dimensional generalized stadium billiard
We study a generalized three-dimensional stadium billiard and present strong numerical evidence that this system is completely chaotic. In this convex billiard chaos is generated by the defocusing mechanism. The construction of this billiard uses cylindrical components as the focusing elements and thereby differs from the recent approach pioneered by Bunimovich and Rehacek [Commun. Math. Phys. 189, 729 (1997)]. We investigate the stability of lower-dimensional invariant manifolds and discuss bouncing ball modes.
Papenbrock
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Institute for Nuclear Theory, Department of Physics, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195, USA.