We deal with Lagrangian systems that are invariant under the action of a symmetry group. The mechanical connection is a principal connection that is associated to Lagrangians which have a kinetic energy function that is defined by a Riemannian metric. In this paper we extend this notion to arbitrary Lagrangians. We then derive the reduced Lagrange-Poincare equations in a new fashion and we show how solutions of the Euler-Lagrange equations can be reconstructed with the help of the mechanical connection. Illustrative examples confirm the theory.
The aim of this paper is to write explicit expression in terms of a given principal connection of the Lagrange-d'Alembert-Poincarè equations in several stages. This is obtained by using a reduced Lagrange-d'Alembert's Principle in several stages, extending methods introduced for the case of two stages by one of the authors and collaborators. The case of the Euler's disk is described as an illustrative example.
In this paper, we will see that the symplectic creed by Weinstein "everything is a Lagrangian submanifold" also holds for Hamilton-Poincaré and Lagrange-Poincaré reduction. In fact, we show that solutions of the Hamilton-Poincaré equations and of the Lagrange-Poincaré equations are in one-to-one correspondence with distinguished curves in a Lagrangian submanifold of a symplectic manifold. For this purpose, we will combine the concept of a Tulczyjew triple with Marsden-Weinstein symplectic reduction.
The purpose of this paper is to describe geometrically discrete Lagrangian and Hamiltonian Mechanics on Lie groupoids. From a variational principle we derive the discrete Euler-Lagrange equations and we introduce a symplectic 2-section, which is preserved by the Lagrange evolution operator. In terms of the discrete Legendre transformations we define the Hamiltonian evolution operator which is a symplectic map with respect to the canonical symplectic 2-section on the prolongation of the dual of the Lie algebroid of the given groupoid. The equations we get include as particular cases the classic…
We complete the reduction scheme in the whole LP category, introduced in [7] to perform Lagrangian reduction by stages. We answer affirmatively the open question of whether reduction can be done in the whole category and analyze the Noether theorem on LP-bundles, the relationship with Hamiltonian reduction by stages and the geometric aspects of the definition of this category.
In some previous papers, a geometric description of Lagrangian Mechanics on Lie algebroids has been developed. In the present paper, we give a Hamiltonian description of Mechanics on Lie algebroids. In addition, we introduce the notion of a Lagrangian submanifold of a symplectic Lie algebroid and we prove that the Lagrangian (Hamiltonian) dynamics on Lie algebroids may be described in terms of Lagrangian submanifolds of symplectic Lie algebroids. The Lagrangian (Hamiltonian) formalism on Lie algebroids permits to deal with Lagrangian (Hamiltonian) functions not defined necessarily on tangent (…
A general, consistent and complete framework for geometrical formulation of mechanical systems is proposed, based on certain structures on affine bundles (affgebroids) that generalize Lie algebras and Lie algebroids. This scheme covers and unifies various geometrical approaches to mechanics in the Lagrangian and Hamiltonian pictures, including time-dependent lagrangians and hamiltonians. In our approach, lagrangians and hamiltonians are, in general, sections of certain $\R$-principal bundles, and the solutions of analogs of Euler-Lagrange equations are curves in certain affine bundles. The cor…
It is well known that Lagrangian dynamical systems naturally arise in describing wave front dynamics in the limit of short waves (which is called pseudoclassical limit or limit of geometrical optics). Wave fronts are the surfaces of constant phase, their points move along lines which are called rays. In non-homogeneous anisotropic media rays are not straight lines. Their shape is determined by modified Lagrange equations. An important observation is that for most usual cases propagating wave fronts are perpendicular to rays in the sense of some Riemannian metric. This happens when Lagrange fun…
If a Lagrangian defining a variational problem has order $k$ then its Euler-Lagrange equations generically have order $2k$. This paper considers the case where the Euler-Lagrange equations have order strictly less than $2k$, and shows that in such a case the Lagrangian must be a polynomial in the highest-order derivative variables, with a specific upper bound on the degree of the polynomial. The paper also provides an explicit formulation, derived from a geometrical construction, of a family of such $k$-th order Lagrangians, and it is conjectured that all such Lagrangians arise in this way.
Let $π:P\to M^n$ be a principal G-bundle, and let ${\mathcal{L}}: J^1P \toΛ^n(M)$ be a G-invariant Lagrangian density. We obtain the Euler-Poincare equations for the reduced Lagrangian l defined on ${\mathcal C}(P)$, the bundle of connections on P.
A solution for the Weinstein's Problem in the general framework of generalized Lie algebroids is the target of this paper. We present the mechanical systems called by use, mechanical (?; ?)-systems, Lagrange mechanical (?; ?)-systems or Finsler mechanical (?; ?)-systems and we develop their geometries. We obtain the canonical (?; ?)-semi(spray) associated to a mechanical (?; ?)-system. The Lagrange mechanical (?; ?)-systems are the spaces necessary to develop a Lagrangian formalism. We obtain the (?; ?)-semispray associated to a regular Lagrangian L and external force Fe and we derive the equa…
In this paper, we make a generalization of Routh's reduction method for Lagrangian systems with symmetry to the case where not any regularity condition is imposed on the Lagrangian. First, we show how implicit Lagrange-Routh equations can be obtained from the Hamilton-Pontryagin principle, by making use of an anholonomic frame, and how these equations can be reduced. To do this, we keep the momentum constraint implicit throughout and we make use of a Routhian function defined on a certain submanifold of the Pontryagin bundle. Then, we show how the reduced implicit Lagrange-Routh equations can …
Lagrange geometry is the geometry of the tensor field defined by the fiberwise Hessian of a non degenerate Lagrangian function on the total space of a tangent bundle. Finsler geometry is the geometrically most interesting case of Lagrange geometry. In this paper we study a generalization, which consists of replacing the tangent bundle by a general tangent manifold, and the Lagrangian by a family of compatible, local, Lagrangian functions. We give several examples, and find the cohomological obstractions to globalization. Then, we extend the connections used in Finsler and Lagrange geometry, wh…
In this paper, we explore dynamics of the nonholonomic system called vakonomic mechanics in the context of Lagrange-Dirac dynamical systems using a Dirac structure and its associated Hamilton-Pontryagin variational principle. We first show the link between vakonomic mechanics and nonholonomic mechanics from the viewpoints of Dirac structures as well as Lagrangian submanifolds. Namely, we clarify that Lagrangian submanifold theory cannot represent nonholonomic mechanics properly, but vakonomic mechanics instead. Second, in order to represent vakonomic mechanics, we employ the space $TQ\times V^…
We study the Euler-Lagrange equations for a parameter dependent $G$-invariant Lagrangian on a homogeneous $G$-space. We consider the pullback of the parameter dependent Lagrangian to the Lie group $G$, emphasizing the special invariance properties of the associated Euler-Poincaré equations with advected parameters.
In this paper we provide a variational derivation of the Euler-Poincaré equations for systems subjected to external forces using an adaptation of the techniques introduced by Galley and others. Moreover, we study in detail the underlying geometry which is related to the notion of Poisson groupoid. Finally, we apply the previous construction to the formal derivation of the variational error for numerical integrators of forced Euler-Poincaré equations and the application of this theory to the derivation of geometric integrators for forced systems.
Consider $L$ a regular Lagrangian, $S$ the canonical semispray, and $h$ the horizontal projector of the canonical nonlinear connection. We prove that if the Lagrangian is constant along the integral curves of the Euler-Lagrange equations then it is constant along the horizontal curves of the canonical nonlinear connection. In other words $S(L)=0$ implies $d_hL=0$. If the Lagrangian $L$ is homogeneous of order $k\neq 1$ then $L$ is a conservation law and hence $d_hL=0$. We give an example of nonhomogeneous Lagrangians for which $d_hL\neq 0$.
In this paper we develop a geometric approach to higher order mechanics on graded bundles in both, the Lagrangian and Hamiltonian formalism, via the recently discovered weighted algebroids. We present the corresponding Tulczyjew triple for this higher order situation and derive in this framework the phase equations from an arbitrary (also singular) Lagrangian or Hamiltonian, as well as the Euler-Lagrange equations. As important examples, we geometrically derive the classical higher order Euler-Lagrange equations and analogous reduced equations for invariant higher order Lagrangians on Lie grou…
In this paper we provide generalized Helmholtz conditions, in terms of a semi-basic 1-form, which characterize when a given system of second order ordinary differential equations is equivalent to the Lagrange equations, for some given arbitrary non-conservative forces. For the particular cases of dissipative or gyroscopic forces, these conditions, when expressed in terms of a multiplier matrix, reduce to those obtained in [18]. When the involved geometric structures are homogeneous with respect to the fibre coordinates, we show how one can further simplify the generalized Helmholtz conditions.…
We make use of a symmetry reduction technique called Routh reduction to show that the solutions of the Euler-Lagrange equations of a strongly convex autonomous Lagrangian which lie on a specific energy level can be thought of as geodesics of an associated Finsler function.
We use methods from exterior differential systems (EDS) to develop a geometric theory of scalar, first-order Lagrangian functionals and their associated Euler-Lagrange PDEs, subject to contact transformations. The first chapter contains an introduction of the classical Poincare-Cartan form in the context of EDS, followed by proofs of classical results, including a solution to the relevant inverse problem, Noether's theorem on symmetries and conservation laws, and several aspects of minimal hypersurfaces. In the second chapter, the equivalence problem for Poincare-Cartan forms is solved, giving…
The paper contains a geometrization of the autonomous multi-time Lagrangian function of electrodynamics. We point out that this multi-time Lagrangian function comes from electrodynamics and the theory of bosonic strings.
We study non-conservative like SODEs admitting explicit Lagrangian descriptions. Such systems are equivalent to the system of Lagrange equations of some Lagrangian $L$, including a covariant force field which represents non-conservative forces. We find necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of a differentiable function $Φ:\mathbb{R}\rightarrow\mathbb{R}$ such that the initial system is equivalent to the system of Euler-Lagrange equations of the deformed Lagrangian $Φ(L)$. We give various examples of such deformations.
We study the Schwarzian derivative from a variational viewpoint. Firstly we show that the Schwarzian derivative defines a first integral of the Euler--Lagrange equation of a second order Lagrangian. Secondly, we show that the Schwarzian derivative itself is the Euler--Lagrange operator for an appropriately chosen class of variations.
In this work we introduce a category $LDP_d$ of discrete-time dynamical systems, that we call discrete Lagrange--D'Alembert--Poincaré systems, and study some of its elementary properties. Examples of objects of $LDP_d$ are nonholonomic discrete mechanical systems as well as their lagrangian reductions and, also, discrete Lagrange-Poincaré systems. We also introduce a notion of symmetry group for objects of $LDP_d$ and a process of reduction when symmetries are present. This reduction process extends the reduction process of discrete Lagrange--Poincaré systems as well as the one defined for non…
The author exposes the metrical multi-time Lagrange geometry of physical fields which naturally generalizes the classical Lagrangian developped by Miron and Anastasiei. In other words, one constructs a natural theory of physical fields on the 1-jet fibre bundle, attached to a Kronecker h-regular multi-time Lagrangian with partial derivatives of order one.
The paper contains a geometrization of a time dependent Lagrangian function defined on the 1-jet space J^1(R,M) which identifies with R\times TM. The reader is invited to compare this geometrization with that developped by Miron and Anastasiei.
In this paper, following the ideas in Marsden et al.[18], we set up the regular reduction theory of a regular controlled Lagrangian (RCL) system with symmetry and momentum map, by using Legendre transformation and Euler-Lagrange vector field, and this reduction is an extension of symmetric reduction theory of a regular Lagrangian system under regular controlled Lagrangian equivalence conditions. Considering the completeness of reduction, in order to describe uniformly the RCL systems defined on a tangent bundle and on its regular reduced spaces, we first define a kind of RCL systems on a sympl…
In this study, we introduce Euler-Lagrange and Hamiltonian equations on (R2; g; J) being a model of para-Kaehlerian Space Forms. Finally, some geometrical and physical results on the related mechanic systems have been discussed.
A geometrization of a Kronecker $h$-regular multi-time Lagrangian function with partial derivatives of order one is described, in the sense of d-connections, d-torsions and d-curvatures.
