A concise treatment of variational techniques, focussing on Lagrangian and Hamiltonian systems, ideal for physics, engineering and mathematics students.

This book contains the exercises from the classical mechanics text Lagrangian and Hamiltonian Mechanics, together with their complete solutions. It is intended primarily for instructors who are using Lagrangian and Hamiltonian Mechanics in their course, but it may also be used, together with that text, by those who are studying mechanics on their own.

The book introduces classical mechanics. It does so in an informal style with numerous fresh, modern and inter-disciplinary applications assuming no prior knowledge of the necessary mathematics. The book provides a comprehensive and self-contained treatment of the subject matter up to the forefront of research in multiple areas.

This textbook examines the Hamiltonian formulation in classical mechanics with the basic mathematical tools of multivariate calculus. It explores topics like variational symmetries, canonoid transformations, and geometrical optics that are usually omitted from an introductory classical mechanics course. For students with only a basic knowledge of mathematics and physics, this book makes those results accessible through worked-out examples and well-chosen exercises. For readers not familiar with Lagrange equations, the first chapters are devoted to the Lagrangian formalism and its applications. Later sections discuss canonical transformations, the Hamilton–Jacobi equation, and the Liouville Theorem on solutions of the Hamilton–Jacobi equation. Graduate and advanced undergraduate students in physics or mathematics who are interested in mechanics and applied math will benefit from this treatment of analytical mechanics. The text assumes the basics of classical mechanics, as well as linear algebra, differential calculus, elementary differential equations and analytic geometry. Designed for self-study, this book includes detailed examples and exercises with complete solutions, although it can also serve as a class text.

This book constructs the mathematical apparatus of classical mechanics from the beginning, examining basic problems in dynamics like the theory of oscillations and the Hamiltonian formalism. The author emphasizes geometrical considerations and includes phase spaces and flows, vector fields, and Lie groups. Discussion includes qualitative methods of the theory of dynamical systems and of asymptotic methods like averaging and adiabatic invariance.

In the case of completely integrable systems, periodic solutions are found by inspection. For nonintegrable systems, such as the three-body problem in celestial mechanics, they are found by perturbation theory: there is a small parameter € in the problem, the mass of the perturbing body for instance, and for € = 0 the system becomes completely integrable. One then tries to show that its periodic solutions will subsist for € -# 0 small enough. Poincare also introduced global methods, relying on the topological properties of the flow, and the fact that it preserves the 2-form L~=l dPi 1\ dqi' The most celebrated result he obtained in this direction is his last geometric theorem, which states that an area-preserving map of the annulus which rotates the inner circle and the outer circle in opposite directions must have two fixed points. And now another ancient theme appear: the least action principle. It states that the periodic solutions of a Hamiltonian system are extremals of a suitable integral over closed curves. In other words, the problem is variational. This fact was known to Fermat, and Maupertuis put it in the Hamiltonian formalism. In spite of its great aesthetic appeal, the least action principle has had little impact in Hamiltonian mechanics. There is, of course, one exception, Emmy Noether's theorem, which relates integrals ofthe motion to symmetries of the equations. But until recently, no periodic solution had ever been found by variational methods.

The principles of gauge symmetry and quantization are fundamental to modern understanding of the laws of electromagnetism, weak and strong subatomic forces and the theory of general relativity. Ideal for graduate students and researchers in theoretical and mathematical physics, this unique book provides a systematic introduction to Hamiltonian mechanics of systems with gauge symmetry. The book reveals how gauge symmetry may lead to a non-trivial geometry of the physical phase space and studies its effect on quantum dynamics by path integral methods. It also covers aspects of Hamiltonian path integral formalism in detail, along with a number of related topics such as the theory of canonical transformations on phase space supermanifolds, non-commutativity of canonical quantization and elimination of non-physical variables. The discussion is accompanied by numerous detailed examples of dynamical models with gauge symmetries, clearly illustrating the key concepts.

Formalism of classical mechanics underlies a number of powerful mathematical methods that are widely used in theoretical and mathematical physics. This book considers the basics facts of Lagrangian and Hamiltonian mechanics, as well as related topics, such as canonical transformations, integral invariants, potential motion in geometric setting, symmetries, the Noether theorem and systems with constraints. While in some cases the formalism is developed beyond the traditional level adopted in the standard textbooks on classical mechanics, only elementary mathematical methods are used in the exposition of the material. The mathematical constructions involved are explicitly described and explained, so the book can be a good starting point for the undergraduate student new to this field. At the same time and where possible, intuitive motivations are replaced by explicit proofs and direct computations, preserving the level of rigor that makes the book useful for the graduate students intending to work in one of the branches of the vast field of theoretical physics. To illustrate how classical-mechanics formalism works in other branches of theoretical physics, examples related to electrodynamics, as well as to relativistic and quantum mechanics, are included.

Classical dynamics is one of the cornerstones of advanced education in physics and applied mathematics, with applications across engineering, chemistry and biology. In this book, the author uses a concise and pedagogical style to cover all the topics necessary for a graduate-level course in dynamics based on Hamiltonian methods. Readers are introduced to the impressive advances in the field during the second half of the twentieth century, including KAM theory and deterministic chaos. Essential to these developments are some exciting ideas from modern mathematics, which are introduced carefully and selectively. Core concepts and techniques are discussed, together with numerous concrete examples to illustrate key principles. A special feature of the book is the use of computer software to investigate complex dynamical systems, both analytically and numerically. This text is ideal for graduate students and advanced undergraduates who are already familiar with the Newtonian and Lagrangian treatments of classical mechanics. The book is well suited to a one-semester course, but is easily adapted to a more concentrated format of one-quarter or a trimester. A solutions manual and introduction to Mathematica® are available online at www.cambridge.org/Lowenstein.

This book provides an accessible introduction to the variational formulation of Lagrangian and Hamiltonian mechanics, with a novel emphasis on global descriptions of the dynamics, which is a significant conceptual departure from more traditional approaches based on the use of local coordinates on the configuration manifold. In particular, we introduce a general methodology for obtaining globally valid equations of motion on configuration manifolds that are Lie groups, homogeneous spaces, and embedded manifolds, thereby avoiding the difficulties associated with coordinate singularities. The material is presented in an approachable fashion by considering concrete configuration manifolds of increasing complexity, which then motivates and naturally leads to the more general formulation that follows. Understanding of the material is enhanced by numerous in-depth examples throughout the book, culminating in non-trivial applications involving multi-body systems. This book is written for a general audience of mathematicians, engineers, and physicists with a basic knowledge of mechanics. Some basic background in differential geometry is helpful, but not essential, as the relevant concepts are introduced in the book, thereby making the material accessible to a broad audience, and suitable for either self-study or as the basis for a graduate course in applied mathematics, engineering, or physics.