We consider classical potential scattering. If no orbit is trapped at energy
E, the Hamiltonian dynamics defines an integer-valued topological degree. This
can be calculated explicitly and be used for symbolic dynamics of
multi-obstacle scattering.
If the potential is bounded, then in the non-trapping case the boundary of
Hill's Region is empty or homeomorphic to a sphere.
We consider classical potential scattering. If at energy E no orbit is
trapped, the Hamiltonian dynamics defines an integer-valued topological degree
deg(E) < 2. This is calculated explicitly for all potentials, and exactly the
integers < 2 are shown to occur for suitable potentials.
The non-trapping condition is restrictive in the sense that for a bounded
potential it is shown to imply that the boundary of Hill's Region in
configuration space is either empty or homeomorphic to a sphere.
However, in many situations one can decompose a potential into a sum of
non-trapping potentials with non-trivial degree and embed symbolic dynamics of
multi-obstacle scattering. This comprises a large number of earlier results,
obtained by different authors on multi-obstacle scattering.Comment: 25 pages, 1 figure Revised and enlarged version, containing more
detailed proofs and remark
