This book offers a systematic presentation of a variety of methods and results concerning integrable systems of classical mechanics. The investigation of integrable systems was an important line of study in the last century, but up until recently only a small number of examples with two or more degrees of freedom were known. In the last fifteen years however, remarkable progress has been made in this field via the so-called isospectral deformation method which makes extensive use of group-theoretical concepts. The book focuses mainly on the development and applications of this new method, and also gives a fairly complete survey of the older classic results. Chapter 1 contains the necessary background material and outlines the isospectral deformation method in a Lie-algebraic form. Chapter 2 gives an account of numerous previously known integrable systems. Chapter 3 deals with many-body systems of generalized Calogero-Moser type, related to root systems of simple Lie algebras. Chapter 4 is devoted to the Toda lattice and its various modifications seen from the group-theoretic point of view. Chapter 5 investigates some additional topics related to many-body systems. The book will be valuable to students as well as researchers.

This book offers a systematic presentation of a variety of methods and results concerning integrable systems of classical mechanics. The investigation of integrable systems was an important line of study in the last century, but up until recently only a small number of examples with two or more degrees of freedom were known. In the last fifteen years however, remarkable progress has been made in this field via the so-called isospectral deformation method which makes extensive use of group-theoretical concepts. The book focuses mainly on the development and applications of this new method, and also gives a fairly complete survey of the older classic results. Chapter 1 contains the necessary background material and outlines the isospectral deformation method in a Lie-algebraic form. Chapter 2 gives an account of numerous previously known integrable systems. Chapter 3 deals with many-body systems of generalized Calogero-Moser type, related to root systems of simple Lie algebras. Chapter 4 is devoted to the Toda lattice and its various modifications seen from the group-theoretic point of view. Chapter 5 investigates some additional topics related to many-body systems. The book will be valuable to students as well as researchers.

These Lecture Notes provide an introduction to the modern theory of classical finite-dimensional integrable systems. The first chapter focuses on some classical topics of differential geometry. This should help the reader to get acquainted with the required language of smooth manifolds, Lie groups and Lie algebras. The second chapter is devoted to Poisson and symplectic geometry with special emphasis on the construction of finite-dimensional Hamiltonian systems. Multi-Hamiltonian systems are also considered. In the third chapter the classical theory of Arnold-Liouville integrability is presented, while chapter four is devoted to a general overview of the modern theory of integrability. Among the topics covered are: Lie-Poisson structures, Lax formalism, double Lie algebras, R-brackets, Adler-Kostant-Symes scheme, Lie bialgebras, r-brackets. Some examples (Toda system, Garnier system, Gaudin system, Lagrange top) are presented in chapter five. They provide a concrete illustration of the theoretical part. Finally, the last chapter is devoted to a short overview of the problem of integrable discretization.