Superintegrability, symmetry and point particle T-duality

Abstract

We show that the ideas related to integrability and symmetry play an important role not only in the string T-duality story but also in its point particle counterpart. Applying those ideas, we find that the T-duality seems to be a more widespread phenomenon in the context of the point particle dynamics than it is in the string one; moreover, it concerns physically very relevant point particle dynamical systems and not just somewhat exotic ones fabricated for the purpose. As a source of T-duality examples, we consider maximally superintegrable spherically symmetric electro-gravitational backgrounds in [Formula: see text] dimensions. We then describe in detail four such spherically symmetric dynamical systems which are all mutually interconnected by a web of point particle T-dualities. In particular, the dynamics of a charged particle scattered by a repulsive Coulomb potential in a flat space is T-dual to the dynamics of the Coulomb scattering in the space of constant negative curvature, but it is also T-dual to the (conformal) Calogero–Moser inverse square dynamics both in flat and hyperbolic spaces. Thus knowing just the Hamiltonian dynamics of the scattered particle cannot give us information about the curvature of the space in which the particle moves.