On integrability of certain rank 2 sub-Riemannian structures (Q1695067)

Let \((\Delta, g)\) be a sub-Riemannian structure on an \(n\)-dimensional manifold \(M\) (see, e.g., [\textit{R. Montgomery}, A tour of subriemannian geometries, their geodesics and applications. Providence, RI: American Mathematical Society (AMS) (2002; Zbl 1044.53022)]. The sub-Riemannian geodesic flow is the Hamiltonian flow on \(T^\ast M\) with the Hamiltonian \(H(x, p) = \frac{1}{2}\| p\|^2_g\). The metric \(g\) is called integrable if the Hamiltonian flow is integrable on \(T^\ast M\) in the Liouville sense (i.e., there exist almost everywhere functionally independent integrals \(I_1 = H\), \(I_2,\dots,I_n\) that Poisson commute). The authors discuss sub-Riemannian structures on Carnot groups \(G\) and prove that, for \(\dim G \leq 5\), every sub-Riemannian structure is Liouville integrable for two-dimensional distributions \(\Delta\). Then they discuss how the integrability of sub-Riemannian flow is related to the amount of its symmetry and prove that there exist sub-Riemannian structures in dimensions \(6\), \(7\), and \(8\) which have a maximal amount of symmetry but no integrals polynomial in momenta of low degree, except for those coming from the Killing vector fields and the Hamiltonian, thus indicating non-integrability of the corresponding geodesic flows.