Integrable and superintegrable 3d Newtonian potentials using quadratic first integrals: A review

TL;DR

This review systematically applies the quadratic first integral method to identify and classify integrable and superintegrable Newtonian potentials in three-dimensional Euclidean space, updating and expanding existing knowledge.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive, systematic application of quadratic first integrals to find all known and new integrable and superintegrable potentials in 3D Newtonian systems.

Findings

All known integrable potentials in E3 are recovered.

New superintegrable potentials are identified.

Results are organized in comprehensive tables.

Abstract

The determination of the first integrals (FIs) of a dynamical system and the subsequent assessment of their integrability or superintegrability in a systematic way is still an open subject. One method which has been developed along these lines for second order autonomous dynamical systems is the so-called direct method. According to this method, one assumes a general functional form for the FI I and requires the condition dI/dt=0 along the dynamical equations. This results to a system of partial differential equations (PDEs) to which one adds the necessary integrability conditions of the involved scalar quantities. It is found that the final system of PDEs breaks into two sets: a. One set containing geometric elements only and b. A second set with geometric and dynamical quantities. Then, provided the geometric quantities are known or can be found, one uses the second set to compute the FIs and, accordingly, assess on the integrability of the dynamical system. The solution of the system of PDEs for quadratic FIs (QFIs) has been given in a recent paper J. Math. Phys. 61, 122701 (2020). In the present work, we consider the application of this solution to Newtonian autonomous conservative dynamical systems with three degrees of freedom, and compute integrable and superintegrable potentials whose integrability is determined via autonomous and time-dependent QFIs. The geometric elements of these systems are the ones of the Euclidean space which are known. Setting various values for the parameters determining the geometric elements, we determine in a systematic way all known integrable and superintegrable potentials in E3 together with new ones. For easy reference, the results are collected in tables so that the present work may act as an updated review on the subject of second order integrable/superintegrable potentials in E3.