Newton's Off-Center Circular Orbits and the Magnetic Monopole

Abstract

Introducing a radially dependent magnetic field into Newton's off-center circular orbits potential so as to preserve the $E=0$ dynamical symmetry leads to a unique choice of field that can be identified as the inclusion of a magnetic monopole in the inverse stereographically projected problem. One finds also a phenomenological correspondence with that of the linearly damped Kepler model. The presence of the monopole field deforms the symmetry algebra by a central extension, and the quantum mechanical version of this algebra reveals a number of zero modes equal to that counted using the index theorem of elliptic operators.