A novel solvable many-body problem with elliptic interactions (Q4514282)

The authors consider Hamiltonian systems of \(N\) particles on a line, in the family described by the Hamiltonians \[ H(p,q)= \sum^N_{n=1} \exp \left[ap_n-(1/2) \sum^N_{m=1,m\neq n}W(q_n-q_m) \right] \] with \(W\) a differentiable even function. These give equations of motion \[ \ddot q_n= \sum^N_{m=1}\dot q_n\dot q_mw(q_n-q_m) \] with \(w(x)=W'(x)\) (thus vanishing automatically for \(m=n)\). \textit{S. N. M. Ruijsenaars} and \textit{H. Schneider} studied this system for \(W(x)=-\log [\wp(x)-C]\), where \(\wp\) is the Weierstrass \(\wp\) elliptic function, and proved its integrability in this case [Ann. Phys. (N.Y.) 170, 370-405 (1986; Zbl 0608.35071)]; it was widely believed that this (up to changes of variables) was the only case in which such systems could be integrated. It is now found by Calogero and Françoise that systems of this family are also integrable -- and actually solvable, i.e. the solution can be obtained by elementary operations -- for \(W(x)=2 \log[\sigma (x)]\), with \(\sigma\) the Weierstrass sigma function, provided the center of mass is stationary, \(\sum\dot q_n=0\) (this condition is automatically conserved if satisfied at \(t=0)\). This result also extends to functions \(\widetilde W(x)\) which can be transformed to \(W(x)\) via a suitable change of the \((p,q;t)\) variables; in particular, this is the case for \(W(x)=2\log [\sigma(x)] +(1/2)Cx^2\), with \(C\), an arbitrary constant. Among the Hamiltonian equations of motion which can be integrated thanks to this result are those of the family \[ \ddot x_n=a\dot x_n+\sum^N_{m=1} \dot x_n\dot x_mw(x_n-x_m) \] with \(a\) an arbitrary constant and \(w(x)\) an arbitrary odd function (subject to the stationary center of mass condition). The complexification of these with \(a\) purely imaginary, \(a=i\Omega\), has a very remarkable property: all the solutions are exactly periodic. The results obtained here are related to recent results of \textit{I. M. Krichever} on elliptic Toda lattices [Int. Math. Res. Not. 8 383-412 (2000; Zbl 1001.37069)].