The equations for geodesic flow on the ellipsoid are well known, and were first solved by Jacobi in 1838 by separating the variables of the Hamilton-Jacobi equation. In 1979 Moser investigated the case of the general ellipsoid with distinct semi-axes and described a set of integrals which weren't know classically. After reviewing the properties of geodesic flow on the three dimensional ellipsoid with distinct semi-axes, we investigate the three dimensional ellipsoid with the two middle semi-axes being equal, corresponding to a Hamiltonian invariant under rotations. The system is Liouville-integrable and thus the invariant manifolds corresponding to regular points of the energy momentum map are 3-dimensional tori. An analysis of the critical points of the energy momentum maps gives the bifurcation diagram. We find the fibres of the critical values of the energy momentum map, and carry out an analysis of the action variables. We show that the obstruction to the existence of single valued globally smooth action variables is monodromy.
Following on from our previous study of the geodesic flow on three dimensional ellipsoid with equal middle semi-axes, here we study the remaining cases: Ellipsoids with two sets of equal semi-axes with SO(2) × SO(2) symmetry, ellipsoids with equal larger or smaller semi-axes with SO(2) symmetry, and ellipsoids with three semi-axes coinciding with SO(3) symmetry. All of these cases are Liouvilleintegrable, and reduction of the symmetry leads to singular reduced systems on lower-dimensional ellipsoids. The critical values of the energy-momentum maps and their singular fibers are completely classified. In the cases with SO(2) symmetry there are corank 1 degenerate critical points; all other critical points are non-degenreate. We show that in the case with SO(2) × SO(2) symmetry three global action variables exist and the image of the energy surface under the energymomentum map is a convex polyhedron. The case with SO(3) symmetry is noncommutatively integrable, and we show that the fibers over regular points of the energy-casimir map are T 2 bundles over S 2 .
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