Hamiltonian reduction of free particle motion on group SL(2, ${\Bbb R}$)

Abstract

The structure of the reduced phase space arising in the Hamiltonian reduction of the phase space corresponding to a free particle motion on the group ${\rm SL}(2, {\Bbb R})$ is investigated. The considered reduction is based on the constraints similar to those used in the Hamiltonian reduction of the Wess--Zumino--Novikov--Witten model to Toda systems. It is shown that the reduced phase space is diffeomorphic either to the union of two two--dimensional planes, or to the cylinder $S^1 \times {\Bbb R}$. Canonical coordinates are constructed for the both cases, and it is shown that in the first case the reduced phase space is symplectomorphic to the union of two cotangent bundles $T^*({\Bbb R})$ endowed with the canonical symplectic structure, while in the second case it is symplectomorphic to the cotangent bundle $T^*(S^1)$ also endowed with the canonical symplectic structure.