Dynamics of constrained many body problems in constant curvature two-dimensional manifolds

Abstract

In this paper, we investigate systems of several point masses moving in constant curvature two-dimensional manifolds and subjected to certain holonomic constraints. We show that in certain cases these systems can be considered as rigid bodies in Euclidean and pseudo-Euclidean three-dimensional spaces with points which can move along a curve fixed in the body. We derive the equations of motion which are Hamiltonian with respect to a certain degenerated Poisson bracket. Moreover, we have found several integrable cases of described models. For one of them, we give the necessary and sufficient conditions for the integrability. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Finite dimensional integrable systems: new trends and methods’.