Subalgebras of integrals, commutants, and superintegrable deformations of Lotka–Volterra systems

Abstract We consider the Lie-algebraic notion of commutant in the setting of Poisson algebra. This provides a framework for deforming Hamiltonian differential equations. By taking a subalgebra of the algebra of integrals, and considering the set of functions that Poisson commute with that subalgebra, the Hamiltonian can be deformed, while retaining integrability. We deform Liouville integrable and superintegrable Lotka-Volterra systems studied in (van der Kamp et al (2014) Proc. R. Soc. A 470 20140481). We present different explicit constructions considering Abelian and non-Abelian subalgebras of integrals. We obtain superintegrable systems for specific dimensions, and in arbitrary dimension. Polynomial systems are deformed to rational systems, some of which have non-rational integrals. Superintegrability seems to be preserved in this approach.