A new proof of the higher-order superintegrability of a noncentral oscillator with inversely quadratic nonlinearities

The superintegrability of a rational harmonic oscillator (noncentral harmonic oscillator with rational ratio of frequencies) with nonlinear "centrifugal" terms is studied. In the first part, the system is directly studied in the Euclidean plane; the existence of higher-order superintegrability (integrals of motion of higher order than 2 in the momenta) is proved by introducing a deformation in the quadratic complex equation of the linear system. The constants of motion of the nonlinear system are explicitly obtained. In the second part, the inverse problem is analyzed in the general case of n degrees of freedom; starting with a general Hamiltonian H and introducing appropriate conditions for obtaining superintegrability, the particular "centrifugal" nonlinearities are obtained. (C) 2010 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3374665]