Abstract:
In 1950s Kolmogorov asked the following question, which is closely
related to the celebrated KAM theory: Can a non-degenerate nearly
integrable Hamiltonian system have a positive Kolmogorov-Sinai
entropy (a.k.a. metric entropy)? We give a positive answer to this
question.
In fact, examples with positive entropy can be constructed by
perturbing the standard geodesic flow on the 3-dimensional torus.
And in higher dimensions there are examples with more interesting
properties. The constructions are based on dual lens maps, which
determine the relation between incoming and outgoing directions of
geodesics passing through a given region. In the talk I will give
an introduction to the background of the problem as well as of the
theory of dual lens maps, and will explain some of the ideas behind
the proof. It is a joint work with D. Burago and S. Ivanov.