Harmonic oscillator on the \(\mathrm{SO}(2,2)\) hyperboloid (Q903698)

The harmonic oscillator, the canonical dynamical system of classical mechanics, has been investigated in many different settings. In the current paper the authors consider the harmonic oscillator on the whole hyperbolic space \(H^2_2\). This three-dimensional hyperboloid is described by \(z^2_0+ z^2_1- z^2_2- z^2_3= R^2\). The authors parameterize it using geodesic pseudo-spherical coordinates \((r,\tau,\varphi)\) defined as follows: \[ z_0= \pm R\cosh r;\quad z_1= R\sinh r\sinh\tau;\quad z_2= R\sinh r\cosh\tau\cos\varphi;\quad z_3= R\sinh r\cosh\tau\sin\varphi, \] where \(r\geq 0\) is the geodesic radial angle, \(\tau\in(-\infty,\infty)\) and \(\varphi\in[0,2\pi]\). This coordinate system is valid only for \(|z_0|\geq R\); the missing part of the surface for \(|z_0|<R\) is accommodated by a related pseudo-spherical coordinate system. The authors show that the harmonic oscillator problem on \(H^2_2\) is exactly solvable and that the associated system is superintegrable. They also construct the symmetry algebra for this system; it turns out to be the nonlinear quadratic Higgs algebra. Also shown is that for Lorentzian momentum \(L^2>0\), all trajectories lie on upper or lower sheets of \(z^2_0- z^2_2- z^2_3= R^2\), and are always conics centered at \(r=0\).