INVARIANTS AT FIXED AND ARBITRARY ENERGY - A UNIFIED GEOMETRIC APPROACH

Invariants at arbitrary and fixed energy (strongly and weakly conserved quantities) for two-dimensional Hamiltonian systems are treated in a unified way. This is achieved by utilizing the Jacobi metric geometrization of the dynamics. Using Killing tensors we obtain an integrability condition for quadratic invariants which involves an arbitrary analytic function S(z). For invariants at arbitrary energy the function S(z) is a second-degree polynomial with real second derivative. The integrability condition then reduces to Darboux's condition for quadratic invariants at arbitrary energy. The four types of classical quadratic invariants for positive-definite two-dimensional Hamiltonians are shown to correspond to certain conformal transformations. We derive the explicit relation between invariants in the physical and Jacobi time gauges. In this way knowledge about the invariant in the physical time gauge enables one to write down directly the components of the corresponding Killing tenser for the Jacobi metric. We also discuss the possibility of searching for linear and quadratic invariants at fixed energy and its connection with the problem of the third integral in galactic dynamics. In our approach linear and quadratic invariants at fixed energy can be found by solving a linear ordinary differential equation of the first or second degree, respectively.