In this talk, I will discuss chaotic billiard systems subject to a rapid periodic driving force, with driving frequency ω. Classically, the energy of such systems changes by small, effectively random increments associated with collisions with the billiard wall, leading to a random walk in energy space, or “energy diffusion.” I will present a Fokker-Planck description of this process. This model displays several notable features, including a 1/ω² scaling of the energy absorption rate, and (in certain special cases) an exact analytical solution. I will also present numerical results which corroborate the model. Finally, I will discuss how the energy diffusion framework may be applicable to many-particle interacting systems, as well as to quantum billiards in the semiclassical limit.

Pizza and drinks served after the talk.