We consider the Lagrangian formulation with duplicated variables of dissipative mechanical systems. The application of Noether theorem leads to physical observable quantities which are not conserved, like energy and angular momentum, and conserved quantities like the Hamiltonian, that generate symmetry transformations and do not correspond to observables. We show that there are simple relations among the equations satisfied by these two types of quantities. In the case of the damped harmonic oscillator, from the quantities obtained by Noether theorem follows the algebra of Feshbach and Tikochinsky. Further, if we consider the whole dynamics, the degrees of freedom separate into a physical and an unphysical sector. We analyze several cases, with linear and nonlinear dissipative forces; the physical consistency of the solutions is ensured observing that the unphysical sector has always the trivial solution.
We present a direct approach to the construction of Lagrangians for a large class of one-dimensional dynamical systems with a simple dependence (monomial or polynomial) on the velocity. We rederive and generalize some recent results and find Lagrangian formulations which seem to be new. Some of the considered systems (e.g., motions with the friction proportional to the velocity and to the square of the velocity) admit infinite families of different Lagrangian formulations.
We present a new method based on Lie symmetries and Jacobi last multipliers which allows one to find many non-standard Lagrangians for dissipative dynamical systems. In particular, it is demonstrated that for every non-standard Lagrangian one can generate a new non-standard Lagrangian associated to a new equation of motion. We point out that the knowledge of Lie symmetries for a given dynamical system generates Jacobi last multipliers which can be used to obtain new non-standard Lagrangians for dissipative dynamical systems in a simple and straightforward way. We exemplify the new method by ap…
Standard and non-standard Lagrangians that give the same equation of motion are significantly different in their forms, as the latter do not have terms that clearly discernable energy-like expressions. A special family of these Lagrangians are null Lagrangians and their gauge functions. It is shown that non-standard null Lagrangians and their gauge functions can be used to introduce dissipative forces to dynamical systems. With standard null Lagrangians being known for introducing non-dissipative forces, the presented results allow for a complete picture of novel roles played by null Lagrangia…
We show that the contact dynamics obtained from the Herglotz variational principle can be described as a constrained nonholonomic or vakonomic ordinary Lagrangian system depending on a dissipative variable with an adequate choice of one constraint. As a consequence we obtain the dynamics of contact nonholonomic and vakonomic systems as ordinary variational calculus with constraints on a Lagrangian with a dissipative variable. The variation of the energy and the other dissipative quantities are also obtained giving the usual results.
In two recent papers necessary and sufficient conditions for a given system of second-order ordinary differential equations to be of Lagrangian form with additional dissipative forces were derived. We point out that these conditions are not independent and prove a stronger result accordingly.
The small oscillations of an arbitrary scleronomous system subject to time-independent non dissipative forces are discussed. The linearized equations of motion are solved by quadratures. As in the conservative case, the general integral is shown to consist of a superposition of harmonic oscillations. A complexification of the resolving algorithm is presented.
We present a method devised by Jacobi to derive Lagrangians of any second-order differential equation: it consists in finding a Jacobi Last Multiplier. We illustrate the easiness and the power of Jacobi's method by applying it to several equations and also a class of equations studied by Musielak with his own method [Musielak ZE, Standard and non-standard Lagrangians for dissipative dynamical systems with variable coefficients. J. Phys. A: Math. Theor. 41 (2008) 055205 (17pp)], and in particular to a Liènard type nonlinear oscillator, and a second-order Riccati equation.
We provide new insights into the contact Hamiltonian and Lagrangian formulations of dissipative mechanical systems. In particular, we state a new form of the contact dynamical equations, and we review two recently presented Lagrangian formalisms, studying their equivalence. We define several kinds of symmetries for contact dynamical systems, as well as the notion of dissipation laws, prove a dissipation theorem and give a way to construct conserved quantities. Some well-known examples of dissipative systems are discussed.
In this paper we present a unified Lagrangian--Hamiltonian geometric formalism to describe time-dependent contact mechanical systems, based on the one first introduced by K. Kamimura and later formalized by R. Skinner and R. Rusk. This formalism is especially interesting when dealing with systems described by singular Lagrangians, since the second-order condition is recovered from the constraint algorithm. In order to illustrate this formulation, some relevant examples are described in full detail: the Duffing equation, an ascending particle with time-dependent mass and quadratic drag, and a c…
In the present work we redefine and generalize the action principle for dissipative systems proposed by Riewe by fixing the mathematical inconsistencies present in the original approach. In order to formulate a quadratic Lagrangian for non-conservative systems, the Lagrangian functions proposed depend on mixed integer order and fractional order derivatives. As examples, we formulate a quadratic Lagrangian for a particle under a frictional force proportional to the velocity, and to the classical problem of an accelerated point charge.
Using a Lagrangian mechanics approach, we construct a framework to study the dissipative properties of systems composed of two components one of which is highly lossy and the other is lossless. We have shown in our previous work that for such a composite system the modes split into two distinct classes, high-loss and low-loss, according to their dissipative behavior. A principal result of this paper is that for any such dissipative Lagrangian system, with losses accounted by a Rayleigh dissipative function, a rather universal phenomenon occurs, namely, selective overdamping: The high-loss mode…
In this paper, we introduce a geometric description of contact Lagrangian and Hamiltonian systems on Lie algebroids in the framework of contact geometry, using the theory of prolongations. We discuss the relation between Lagrangian and Hamiltonian settings through a convenient notion of Legendre transformation. We also discuss the Hamilton-Jacobi problem in this framework and introduce the notion of a Legendrian Lie subalgebroid of a contact Lie algebroid.
Based on the Lagrangian description of the dissipative oscillator, the Hamiltonian description of Fourier heat conduction is treated here. The method enables us to calculate the solution of thermal propagation involving the Maxwell-Cattaneo-Vernotte (MCV) telegrapher type also, in which both the initial and the boundary conditions are taken into account. The presented study offers a new kind of solution to certain partial differential equations.
The non-standard Lagrangians (NSLs) for dissipative-like dynamical systems were introduced in an ad hoc fashion rather than being derived from the solution of the inverse problem of variational calculus. We begin with the first integral of the equation of motion and solve the associated inverse problem to obtain some of the existing results for NSLs. In addition, we provide a number of alternative Lagrangian representations. The case studies envisaged by us include (i) the usual modified Emden-type equation, (ii) Emden-type equation with dissipative term quadratic in velocity and (iii) Lokta-V…
A variant of the usual Lagrangian scheme is developed which describes both the equations of motion and the variational equations of a system. The required (prolonged) Lagrangian is defined in an extended configuration space comprising both the original configurations of the system and all the virtual displacements joining any two integral curves. Our main result establishes that both the Euler-Lagrange equations and the corresponding variational equations of the original system can be viewed as the Lagrangian vector field associated with the first prolongation of the original LagrangianAfter d…
This paper presents symmetry reduction for material stochastic Lagrangian systems with advected quantities whose configuration space is a Lie group. Such variational principles yield deterministic as well as stochastic constrained variational principles for dissipative equations of motion in spatial representation. The general theory is presented for the finite dimensional situation. In infinite dimensions we obtain partial differential equations and stochastic partial differential equations. When the Lie group is, for example, a diffeomorphism group, the general result is not directly applica…
A relation between variational principles for equations of continuum mechanics in Eulerian and Lagrangian descriptions is considered. It is shown that for a system of differential equations in Eulerian variables corresponding Lagrangian description is related to introducing nonlocal variables. The connection between these descriptions is obtained in terms of differential coverings. The relation between variational principles of a system of equations and its symplectic structures is discussed. It is shown that if a system of equations in Lagrangian variables can be derived from a variational pr…
An explicit Lagrangian description is given for the Heisenberg equation on the algebra of operators of a quantum system, and for the Landau-von Neumann equation on the manifold of quantum states which are isospectral with respect to a fixed reference quantum state.
We consider the stationary measure of the dissipative dynamical system in a finite volume. A finite dissipation, however small, generally makes the measure singular, while at zero dissipation the measure is constant. Thus dissipative part of the dynamics is a singular perturbation producing an infinite change in the measure. This is a result of the infinite time of evolution that enhances the small effects of dissipation to form singularities. We show how to deal with the singularity of the perturbation and describe the statistics of the measure. We derive all the correlation functions and the…
In this paper we will propose a physical interpretation of Borel resummation. We will define Borel transformation on the Lagrangian level. This transformation essentially coincides with coupling the original theory to the non-dynamical complex dilaton field. In the perturbative sector it reproduces standard Borel resummation. In the non-perturbative sector this transformation reproduces Bogomolny--Zinn-Justin(BZJ) regularization. Our approach unifies the perturbative Borel resummation and non-perturbative BZJ procedure.
The dynamics of some non-conservative and dissipative systems can be derived by calculating the first variation of an action-dependent action, according to the variational principle of Herglotz. This is directly analogous to the variational principle of Hamilton commonly used to derive the dynamics of conservative systems. In a similar fashion, just as the second variation of a conservative system's action can be used to infer whether that system's possible trajectories are dynamically stable, so too can the second variation of the action-dependent action be used to infer whether the possible …
The Euler equation for an inviscid, incompressible fluid in a three-dimensional domain M implies that the vorticity is a frozen-in field. This can be used to construct a symplectic structure on RxM. The normalized vorticity and the suspended velocity fields are Hamiltonian with the function t and the Bernoulli function, respectively. The symplectic structure incorporates the helicity conservation law as an identity. The infinitesimal dilation for the symplectic two-form can be interpreted as a current vector for the helicity. The symplectic dilation implies the existence of contact hypersurfac…
In this paper, we propose a novel algebraic and geometric description for the dissipative dynamics. Our formulation bears some similarity to the Poisson structure for non-dissipative systems. We develop a canonical description for constrained dissipative systems through an extension of the Dirac brackets concept, and we present a new formula for calculating Dirac brackets. This formula is particularly useful in the description of dynamical systems with many second-class constraints. After presenting the necessary formal background we illustrate our method on several examples taken from particl…
In this paper an approach is proposed to represent a class of dissipative mechanical systems by corresponding infinite-dimensional Hamiltonian systems. This approach is based upon the following structure: for any non-conservative classical mechanical system and arbitrary initial conditions, there exists a conservative system; both systems share one and only one common phase curve; and, the value of the Hamiltonian of the conservative system is, up to an additive constant, equal to the total energy of the non-conservative system on the aforementioned phase curve, the constant depending on the i…
The incompressibility constraint for fluid flow was imposed by Lagrange in the so-called Lagrangian variable description using his method of multipliers in the Lagrangian (variational) formulation. An alternative is the imposition of incompressibility in the Eulerian variable description by a generalization of Dirac's constraint method using noncanonical Poisson brackets. Here it is shown how to impose the incompressibility constraint using Dirac's method in terms of both the canonical Poisson brackets in the Lagrangian variable description and the noncanonical Poisson brackets in the Eulerian…
Starting from the geometric description of quantum systems, we propose a novel approach to time-independet dissipative quantum processes according to which the energy is dissipated but the coherence of the states is preserved. Our proposal consists on extending the standard symplectic picture of quantum mechanics to a contact manifold and then obtaining dissipation using an appropriate contact Hamiltonian dynamics. We work out the case of finite-level systems, for which it is shown by means of the corresponding contact master equation that the resulting dynamics constitutes a viable alternativ…
We explore the connection between the equations describing Sisyphus dynamics and the generic Liénard type or Liénard equation from the viewpoint of branched Hamiltonians. The former provides the appropriate setting for classical time crystal being derivable from a higher order Lagrangian. However it appears the equations of Sisyphus dynamics have a close relation with the Liénard-II equation when expressed in terms of the `velocity' variable. Another interesting feature of the equations of Sisyphus dynamics is the appearance of velocity dependent "mass function" in contrast to the more commonl…
The jet bundle description of time-dependent mechanics is revisited. The constraint algorithm for singular Lagrangians is discussed and an exhaustive description of the constraint functions is given. By means of auxiliary connections we give a basis of constraint functions in the Lagrangian and Hamiltonian sides. An additional description of constraints is also given considering at the same time compatibility, stability and second-order condition problems. Finally, a classification of the constraints in first and second class is obtained using a cosymplectic geometry setting. Using the second …
