Some Strange Phenomena in Discontinuous Systems
William Clark (Department of Mathematics, Cornell University)
An archetypal class of discontinuous dynamical systems are systems with impacts; the momentum instantaneously jumps during collisions. Many of the usual questions, e.g., stability, controllability/accessibility, and optimization, become considerably more nuanced when discontinuities are present. In this talk, I will introduce the geometry behind these systems and show some aspects on how their numerical study becomes elusive.