Mechanical Systems with Poincare Invariance

Abstract

Some years ago Ruijsenaars and Schneider initiated the study of mechanical systems exhibiting an action of the Poincare algebra. The systems they discovered were far richer: their models were actually integrable and possessed a natural quantum version. We follow this early work finding and classifying mechanical systems with such an action. New solutions are found together with a new class of models exhibiting an action of the Galilean algebra. These are related to the functional identities underlying the various Hirzebruch genera. The quantum mechanics is also discussed.