Outer billiard

Outer billiards is a dynamical system based on a convex shape in the plane. Classically, this system is defined for the Euclidean plane but one can also consider the system in the hyperbolic plane or in other spaces that suitably generalize the plane. Outer billiards differs from a usual dynamical billiard in that it deals with a discrete sequence of moves "outside" the shape rather than inside of it.
Definitions.
The outer billiards map.
Let P be a convex shape in the plane.
Given a point x0 outside P, there is typically a unique
point x1 (also outside P) so that the line segment connecting x0 to x1 is tangent to P at its midpoint and
a person walking from x0 to x1 would see P on the right. (See Figure.) The map
F: x0 -> x1 is called the "outer billiards map".
The inverse (or backwards) outer billiards map is also defined, as the map x1 -> x0. 
One gets the inverse map simply by replacing the word "right" by the word "left" in the definition given above.
The figure shows the situation in the Euclidean plane, but the definition in the
hyperbolic plane is essentially the same.
Orbits.
An outer billiards orbit is the set of all iterations 
of the point, namely ... x0 <--> x1 <--> x2 <--> x3 ... That is, start at x0 and
iteratively apply both the outer billiards map and the backwards outer billiards map.
When P is a strictly convex shape, such as an ellipse,
every point in the exterior of P has a well defined orbit. When P
is a polygon, some points might not have well-defined orbits, on account of the
potential ambiguity of choosing the midpoint of the relevant tangent line. Nevertheless, in
the polygonal case, almost every point has a well-defined orbit.
Higher-dimensional spaces.
Defining an outer billiards system in a higher-dimensional space is beyond the scope of this article. Unlike the case of ordinary billiards, the definition is not straightforward. One natural setting for the map is a complex vector space. In this case, there is a natural choice of line tangent to a convex body at each point. One obtains these tangents by starting with the normals and using the complex structure to rotate 90 degrees. These distinguished tangent lines can be used
to define the outer billiards map roughly as above. See S. Tabachnikov's book (cited in the references) for details.
History.
Most people attribute the introduction of outer billiards to Bernhard Neumann in the late 1950s, 
though it seems
that a few people cite an earlier construction in 1945, due to M. Day. Jürgen Moser popularized the system in the 1970s as a toy model for
celestial mechanics. This system has been studied classically in the Euclidean plane, and more recently in
the hyperbolic plane. One can also consider higher-dimensional spaces, though no serious study has yet been made.
Bernhard Neumann informally posed the question as to whether or not one can
have unbounded orbits in an outer billiards system, and Moser put it in writing in 1973.
Sometimes this basic question has been called "the Moser-Neumann question".
This question, originally posed for shapes in the Euclidean plane and
solved only recently, has been a
guiding problem in the field.
Moser-Neumann question.
Bounded orbits in the Euclidean plane.
In the 70's, Jürgen Moser sketched a proof, based on K.A.M. theory, that outer 
billiards relative to a
6-times-differentiable shape of positive curvature has all orbits bounded.
In 1982, Raphael Douady gave the full proof of this result.
A big advance in the polygonal case came over a period of several years when
three teams of authors, Vivaldi-Shaidenko (1987), Kolodziej (1989), and Gutkin-Simanyi (1991), each 
using different methods,
showed that outer
billiards relative to a "quasirational" polygon has all orbits bounded. The notion of quasirational is technical
(see references) but it includes the class of regular polygons and "convex rational polygons", 
namely those convex polygons whose vertices have rational coordinates. In the case of rational polygons, all the orbits are
periodic. In 1995, Tabachnikov showed that outer billiards for the regular pentagon has some aperiodic orbits,
thus clarifying the distinction between the dynamics in the rational and regular cases.
In 1996, Boyland showed that outer billiards relative to some shapes can have orbits which accumulate on
the shape.
In 2005, D. Genin showed that all orbits are bounded when the shape is a trapezoid, thus
showing that quasirationality is not a "necessary" condition for the system to have all orbits bounded.
Unbounded orbits in the Euclidean plane.
In 2007, R. E. Schwartz showed that outer billiards has some unbounded orbits when defined
relative to the Penrose Kite, thus answering the original Moser-Neumann question in the affirmative.
The Penrose kite is the convex quadrilateral from the kites-and-darts Penrose tilings.
Subsequently, Schwartz showed that outer billiards has unbounded orbits when defined relative
to any irrational kite. An
"irrational kite" is a quadrilateral with the following property: 
One of the diagonals of the quadrilateral divides the region into two triangles of equal area 
and the other diagonal divides the region into two triangles whose areas are not rational multiples
of each other.
In 2008, Dolgopyat-Fayad showed that outer billiards defined relative to the semidisk has
unbounded orbits. The "semidisk" is the region one gets by cutting a disk in half.
The proof of Dolgopyat-Fayad is robust, and also works for regions obtained by
cutting a disk nearly in half, when the word "nearly" is suitably interpreted.
Unbounded orbits in the hyperbolic plane.
In 2003, Dogru and Tabachnikov showed that all orbits are unbounded
for a certain class of convex polygons in the hyperbolic plane.
The authors call such polygons "large". 
(See the reference for the definition.) Dogru and Otten then extended this work in 2011 by specifying the conditions under which a regular polygonal table in the hyperbolic plane have all orbits unbounded, that is, are large.
Existence of periodic orbits.
In ordinary polygonal billiards, the existence of periodic
orbits is a major unsolved problem. For instance, it is unknown if every
triangular shaped table has a periodic billiard path. More progress has
been made for outer billiards, though the situation is far from well understood.
As mentioned above, all the orbits are periodic when the system is defined
relative to a convex rational polygon in the Euclidean plane. Moreover, it is a
recent theorem of C. Culter (written up by S. Tabachnikov) that outer
billiards relative to any convex polygon has periodic orbits—in fact a
periodic orbit outside of any given bounded region.
Open questions.
Outer billiards is a subject still in its beginning phase. Most problems are still unsolved. 
Here are some open problems in the area.