Symplectic topology of integrable dynamical systems. Rough topological classification of classical cases of integrability in the dynamics of a heavy rigid body (Q1303354)

The main scope of this long paper is the classification of all integrable non-degenerate Hamiltonian systems of two degrees of freedom. A short review on Liouville integrable systems is presented with emphasis to the integrable cases of rigid body dynamics. The definition of a Morse function on a smooth manifold is given. By studying the level curves of a simple Morse function on a two-dimensional surface, one can assign to the critical points of different nature, different letters with incoming or outcoming line segments, that represent schematically the nature of the bifurcation of the surface that occurs at this point. Such a representation is called an ``atom''. The whole surface is reconstructed by joining its atoms along their free line segments, so that the surface is represented unambiguously by a ``molecule''. A Bott function on a manifold \(Q\) is defined as a function whose critical points form non-degenerate critical submanifolds in \(Q\). It is shown that integrals of Hamiltonian systems cannot be Morse functions, but in general they are of the Bott type, and such integrals are called Bott integrals. Two integrable systems are finely topologically equivalent on a 3-dimensional isoenergetic manifold if their Liouville foliations are diffeomorphic and the orientation of the isolated critical circles is preserved, while they are roughly topologically equivalent if their Liouville foliations can be transformed to one another by a Liouville twisting. Finely equivalent systems are also roughly equivalent but not the opposite. The existence of an algorithm is shown, by which one can attach to a 3-dimensional isoenergetic manifold of an integrable system a molecule \(W\) and a marked molecule \(W^*\), which is actually \(W\) with some specific numbers attached on its edges. It is shown that two integrable systems are roughly topologically equivalent if their molecules \(W\) coincide, while they are finely topologically equivalent if their marked molecules \(W^*\) coincide. Since the sets \(\{ W \}\) and \(\{ W^* \}\) of all possible molecules and marked molecules are discrete, the classification of all integrable systems on their 3-dimensional isoenergetic manifolds is also discrete, a fact that was not obvious beforehand. The complexity of a molecule is defined as given by the integer \(m\) (the total number of vertices) and \(n\) (the total number of edges of the molecule). Let \(\lambda (m,n)\) denote the number of molecules with complexity \((m,n)\). This number, which is zero for \(n>[3m/2]\), is finite and can be calculated for small complexities, but grows rapidly with \(m\). The interesting fact that all integrable systems with ``physical interest'' lie on the plane \((m,n)\) in a narrow zone along the line \(n=m-1\) is pointed out. A realization of the simple atoms that appear in a molecule is presented. After a short historical commentary, the cases of geodesic flows on the 2-sphere and 2-torus are reviewed and a topological classification of the classical cases of integrability in the rigid body dynamics is presented.