Toward a classification of semidegenerate 3D superintegrable systems

Superintegrable systems of 2nd order in 3 dimensions with exactly 3-parameter potentials are intriguing objects. Next to the nondegenerate 4-parameter potential systems they admit the maximum number of symmetry operators, but their symmetry algebras do not close under commutation and not enough is known about their structure to give a complete classification. Some examples are known for which the 3-parameter system can be extended to a 4th order superintegrable system with a 4-parameter potential and 6 linearly independent symmetry generators. In this paper we use Bocher contractions of the conformal Lie algebra so(5,C) to itself to generate a large family of 3-parameter systems with 4th order extensions, on a variety of manifolds, all from Bocher contractions of a single generic system on the 3-sphere. We give a contraction scheme relating these systems. The results have myriad applications for finding explicit solutions for both quantum and classical systems.