Integrable discretization and deformation of the nonholonomic Chaplygin ball

Abstract

The rolling of a dynamically balanced ball on a horizontal rough table without slipping was described by Chaplygin using Abel quadratures. We discuss integrable discretizations and deformations of this nonholonomic system using the same Abel quadratures. As a by-product one gets a new geodesic flow on the unit two-dimensional sphere whose additional integrals of motion are polynomials in the momenta of fourth order.