Simultaneous separation for the Neumann and Chaplygin systems (Q2515230)

The classical Neumann system describes the dynamics of a particle on the sphere under the influence of the quadratic potential. It is one of the basic integrable examples that could be solved using Jacobi elliptic variables. By the use of bi-Hamiltonian geometry, the author finds separation variables of the Neumann system, which coincide with the separation variables of the another well known integrable system -- the Chaplygin system, describing the motion of a rigid body in an ideal incompressible fluid. It is shown that the canonical transformation of the elliptic coordinates to the Chaplygin variables can be consider as a Bäcklund transformation related to the \(2\times 2\) Lax representation of the Neumann system. It is also proved that after similar Bäcklund transformations, other curvilinear coordinates on the sphere and on the plane become variables of separation for the system with quartic potential, for the Hénon-Heiles system and for the Kowalevski system on the sphere.