We introduce a new equivalence relation on the set of all polygonal billiards. We say that two billiards (or polygons) are order equivalent if each of the billiards has an orbit whose footpoints are dense in the boundary and the two sequences of footpoints of these orbits have the same combinatorial order. We study this equivalence relation under additional regularity conditions on the orbit.
Centre de physique théorique, Fédération de Recherches des Unités de Mathématique de Marseille, Institut de mathématiques de Luminy, Université de la Méditerranée, Luminy, Case 907, F-13288 Marseille Cedex 9, France