{
  "schema_version": 1,
  "problem_number": "AMR-050-0049",
  "title": "Midpoint Polygons and Four Inversive Area Invariants of N-Periodics in the Elliptic Billiard",
  "author": {
    "name": "Alper Ferudun",
    "affiliation": "Mercury Software GmbH",
    "url": "https://github.com/AlperTheKing"
  },
  "abstract": "Reznik, Garcia and Koiller listed many experimentally found invariants of the families of N-periodic billiard trajectories in an ellipse. Let A and A′ be the signed areas of the trajectory and of its outer polygon, and A^⊗ and A′^⊖ those of the polygons obtained by inverting the vertices of the trajectory in the caustic and those of the outer polygon in the billiard ellipse. Their rows k807 and k809 state that AA^⊗ and A′A′^⊖ are constant along the family for even N, and k808 and k810 that A/A^⊗ and A′/A′^⊖ are constant for odd N (records AMR-050-0049 to AMR-050-0052 of the UnsolvedMath collection). We prove all four, for every ellipse with semi-axes a > b > 0, every confocal elliptic caustic and every least period N of the stated parity, for convex and for self-intersecting trajectories. The inverted polygons are midpoint polygons, so their areas involve the area of the polygon of diagonals. In Stachel's canonical parametrisation by Jacobi elliptic functions, and by Stachel's conjugate-billiard relation, all areas are expressed by two elliptic functions F, G of the phase. For even N, F(u)F(u+Δ) and F(u)G(u+Δ) are constant by Liouville's theorem, the poles of one factor meeting zeros of the other that are forced by a folding symmetry. For odd N, G = γF, and k808 = k810 = 4κ/(2+γ) with κ = ab/(a″b″), where a″, b″ are the semi-axes of the caustic and γ is an explicit algebraic function with 2 + γ > 0. For N = 4 the constants are 4a⁴b⁴/(a²+b²)² and 4a²b². The argument also gives the row k110, that AA″ is constant for even N, A″ being the area of the inner polygon (record AMR-050-0004); this row is not new, as it follows at once from Chavez-Caliz's theorem on AA′ and Stachel's relation A′ = κ²A″. The cases N = 3 of k808 and k810 follow from a theorem of Akopyan, Schwartz and Tabachnikov and Stachel's relation, and the cases N = 4, 6 of k807 and k809 from Chavez-Caliz's theorem. This is an unrefereed note.",
  "result_type": "COMPLETE_SCOPED_PROOF",
  "categories": [
    "math.MG",
    "math.DS",
    "math.CV"
  ],
  "keywords": [
    "elliptic billiard",
    "Poncelet porism",
    "N-periodic trajectories",
    "inversion in an ellipse",
    "midpoint polygon",
    "outer polygon",
    "inner polygon",
    "signed area",
    "Jacobi elliptic functions",
    "Liouville theorem",
    "Reznik–Garcia–Koiller invariants",
    "UnsolvedMath",
    "AMR-050-0049",
    "AMR-050-0050",
    "AMR-050-0051",
    "AMR-050-0052",
    "AMR-050-0004",
    "math.MG",
    "math.DS",
    "math.CV",
    "open mathematics"
  ],
  "manuscript_version_date": "2026-10-15",
  "publication_date": "2026-10-15",
  "publication_date_kind": "first public online release",
  "version": "1.0",
  "date_modified": "2026-10-15",
  "presentation_revision_only": false,
  "doi_archived_file_version": "1.0",
  "status": "unrefereed preprint",
  "canonical_url": "https://eulersolve.org/papers/amr-050-0049/",
  "pdf_url": "https://eulersolve.org/papers/amr-050-0049/paper.pdf?v=667135d130c4",
  "doi": "10.5281/zenodo.23405556",
  "zenodo_record_url": "https://zenodo.org/records/23405556",
  "license": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "scope_caveat": "Rows k807 to k810 of the Reznik-Garcia-Koiller list of invariants of N-periodic billiard trajectories in an ellipse (records AMR-050-0049 to AMR-050-0052) are proved for every ellipse, every confocal elliptic caustic and every least period N of the stated parity, convex and self-intersecting. Row k110 (record AMR-050-0004) is shown to follow from printed results of Chavez-Caliz and Stachel; nothing new is claimed for it.",
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    "source.zip": {
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  "ai_use_disclosure": "AI-assisted tools supported research, computation, proof development, and manuscript preparation. The author remains responsible for all claims and the final text."
}