More than three integrals occur when additional symmetry or degeneracy restricts motion beyond a generic three-frequency invariant torus. In a time-independent central gravitational potential, energy and the three components of specific angular momentum are four generically independent isolating integrals. They fix the orbital plane as well as the radial-motion parameters. A nonclosed planar rosette typically has two-dimensional orbit closure, rather than a three-dimensional invariant torus.
The Kepler orbit is a stronger example. In addition to and , the conserved Laplace-Runge-Lenz vector
fixes the apsidal direction. Its constraints and leave five independent integrals among . It is a maximally superintegrable Hamiltonian system, with closed nondegenerate bound orbits.
More than three integrals need not form a set of Poisson-commuting functions; the three-integral limit applies to an independent commuting set, rather than to every conserved orbit constraint. At a nonstationary point in six-dimensional phase space, integral gradients annihilate the nonzero flow vector, so at most five are independent. This explains the isolating integrals and orbital closure dimension count. A resonance on one isolated orbit does not by itself prove an additional smooth global integral on a neighborhood.
Five independent isolating orbit labels describe a regular closed, nonstationary orbit in three-dimensional space: its phase space closure is one-dimensional. Five is the maximum at a nonzero flow vector, since every conserved differential annihilates that vector in the six-dimensional tangent space. A global superintegrable Hamiltonian system example is the Kepler orbit, where specific orbital energy, angular momentum and the Laplace-Runge-Lenz vector have two vector/scalar relations leaving five independent invariants. A circular or radial orbit requires a separate treatment of any rank-degenerate formula for these invariants. Five integrals do not force an escaping trajectory to be periodic: unbound Kepler orbits also have the conserved apsidal vector. The closure criterion concerns recurrent bound motion.
Closure of one resonant orbit need not imply five smooth independent integrals on an open neighborhood of all nearby orbits. The orbit-wise count and global superintegrability must be distinguished; the distinction matters in part (b).
Set and interpret in the displayed equation as specific angular momentum, , rather than total angular momentum. The gravitational potential is per unit mass and has dimensions of length. Spherical symmetry fixes the orbital plane and conserves the vector angular momentum, while the autonomous specific orbital energy is also conserved.
For the orbit equation for combined inverse-square and inverse-cube attraction, define
A regular nonradial bounded oscillation requires and . Solving the linear Binet equation then gives
For a noncircular bound orbit ; its specific orbital energy is . The effective potential has a centrifugal barrier and a minimum in this case. If , the oscillator frequency is zero or imaginary and there is no regular finite-radius bound oscillation: the attractive centre lacks a centrifugal barrier. Unbound branches with are not closed ellipselike trajectories.
Successive pericentres differ in angle by . The full phase space state returns after radial oscillations and revolutions precisely when
where are coprime positive integers; the second formula applies when . Thus requires and , whereas requires . An irrational advances the apsidal direction through a dense set of angles and gives a nonclosed rosette, with only the four regular spherical invariants needed to label its two-dimensional closure.
Figure 1.
Closed rational-frequency orbits and a nonclosed irrational-frequency rosette in an inverse-cube-perturbed central force
. Details.
To see the additional resonant label explicitly, let and . Then , so on a family with fixed resonant ,
Its argument fixes the remaining apsidal phase modulo the symmetry of the closed curve; its magnitude is already determined by specific orbital energy and . Choosing reference axes in the fixed orbital plane makes this single-valued under . This is the fifth independent orbit label on the resonant family described by closed orbits with an inverse-cube perturbation.
For , varies with . The orbital resonance condition holds only on selected angular momentum surfaces, so this construction is not a fifth global smooth integral on an open set of arbitrary nearby . If the question asks for a maximally superintegrable Hamiltonian system on an open region of noncircular bound orbits, the required case is : then for every , and the conserved Laplace-Runge-Lenz vector fixes the apsidal direction globally. The relations and leave five independent constants. For the usual orbit-wise interpretation, noncircular bound orbits with rational have five isolating labels; irrational has four. Circular orbits are closed for any allowed but have no independent apsidal phase, so the generic noncircular count cannot simply be applied to them.
For completeness, regular unbound branches are different. When and , positive radius restricts the radial phase to . The apsidal invariant on an unbound central-force branch is
The principal argument is continuous on this scattering branch because it never reaches an apocentre across the negative-real-axis cut. Thus the periapsis direction can be a fifth single-valued scattering label for any positive , including irrational ; the rationality condition applies to the noncircular bound case. For plunging or collision branches with , local trajectory labels can still be defined away from the singular centre, but the preceding periodic-orbit criterion is inapplicable and no smooth continuation through is asserted.
A superintegrable Hamiltonian system with degrees of freedom has more than functionally independent integrals of motion, including an integrable set of in involution. At a regular nonzero Hamiltonian vector field, at most independent integral differentials can annihilate the flow. A maximally superintegrable system attains that bound. The three-dimensional Kepler orbit has five independent integrals through energy, angular momentum and the Laplace-Runge-Lenz vector. A closed orbit on one isolated resonance is weaker than maximal superintegrability on an open phase-space region.