Kowalevski top revisited

Abstract

We review the separation of variables for the Kowalevski top and for its generalization to the algebra o(4). We notice that the corresponding separation equations allow an interpretation of the Kowalevski top as a B2 integrable lattice. Consequently, we apply the quadratic r-matrix formalism to construct a new 2x2 Lax matrix for the top, which is responsible for its separation of variables.

18 pages, corrected a typo in the formulas (69)