Michael Tsiflakos (Univ. of Alabama at Birmingham)

Title: 
Recent results towards the ergodicity of N ≥ 3 falling balls.

Abstract: 
In the late 1980s, Maciej P. Wojtkowski introduced the system of N, N ≥ 2, falling
balls. It describes the motion of N point masses moving up and down a vertical
line, colliding with each other elastically and the lowest point mass collides with
a rigid floor placed at height zero. The system is known to be ergodic for N = 2 and
conjectured to be ergodic for N ≥ 3. We will discuss some recent results towards
the ergodicity of N ≥ 3 falling balls.