Related papers: Brachistochrones With Loose Ends
The variational problem of the least uncomfortable journey between two locations on a straight line is simplified by a choice of the dependent variable. It is shown that taking the position, instead of the velocity, as the optimal function…
An optimal control problem for longitudinal motions of a thin elastic rod is considered. We suppose that a normal force, which changes piecewise constantly along the rod's length, is applied to the cross-section so that the positions of…
I discuss the influence of adding the air resistance and the kinetic friction to the classical mechanics homework-problem: finding the motion of a body sliding down a hemispherical hill. For a physically realistic ($\propto v^2$) form of…
We determine the globally minimum time $T$ needed to translate a thin submerged flat plate a given distance parallel to its surface within a work budget. The Reynolds number for the flow is assumed to be large so that the drag on the plate…
An account of the transversality conditions of variational problems gives rise to essential results in the analysis of different physical phenomena. This powerful and elegant approach has proven to be fruitful in a diversity of variational…
We study a classical Bayesian statistics problem of sequentially testing the sign of the drift of an arithmetic Brownian motion with the $0$-$1$ loss function and a constant cost of observation per unit of time for general prior…
We review some applications of fractional calculus developed by the author (partly in collaboration with others) to treat some basic problems in continuum and statistical mechanics. The problems in continuum mechanics concern mathematical…
In this thesis we deal with two different classes of variational problems: 1) the problem of closed curves with prescribed curvature, or $H$-loop problem; 2) the study of the nodal solutions of the fractional Brezis-Nirenberg problem. In…
We study the problem of motion of a relativistic, ideal elastic solid with free surface boundary by casting the equations in material form ("Lagrangian coordinates"). By applying a basic theorem due to Koch, we prove short-time existence…
We investigate the propagation of a slip front in a visco-elastic body on a rigid substrate. The body is one-dimensional, and the loading stress is applied at one end. By employing a local friction law that has a quadratic form of the slip…
We discuss the stick-slip motion of an elastic block sliding along a rigid substrate. We argue that for a given external shear stress this system shows a discontinuous nonequilibrium transition from a uniform stick state to uniform sliding…
Classical Stokes' drift is the small time-averaged drift velocity of suspended non-diffusing particles in a fluid due to the presence of a wave. We consider the effect of adding diffusion to the motion of the particles, and show in…
We propose a simple method that allows, in one dimension, to solve exactly a wide class of classical stochastic many-body systems far from equilibrium. For the sake of illustration and without loss of generality, we focus on a model that…
The dynamics of a classical branelike object in a curved background is derived from the covariant stress-energy conservation of the brane matter. The world sheet equations and boundary conditions are obtained in the pole-dipole…
This work is devoted to a systematic exposition of the dynamics of a rigid body, considered as a system with kinematic constraints. Having accepted the variational problem in accordance with this, we no longer need any additional postulates…
A new general equation to explain bending of arbitrary rods (from arbitrary materials, cross sections, densities, strengthnesses, bending angles, etc) was proposed. This equation can solve several problems found in classical equations,…
We construct a Bayesian sequential test of two simple hypotheses about the value of the unobservable drift coefficient of a Brownian motion, with a possibility to change the initial decision at subsequent moments of time for some penalty.…
We formulate the quasi-static elastic contact problem with Coulomb friction in a very general setting, with possible jumps in time for both the load and the solution. Exploiting ideas originating in our recent paper [4], we exhibit an…
The equations for the sliding of a single block driven by an elastic force show numerically a fast and a slow step in their dynamics when a dimensionless parameter is very large, a limit pertinent for many applications. An asymptotic…
The travel time brachistochrone curves in a general relativistic framework are timelike curves, satisfying a suitable conservation law with respect to a an observer field, that are stationary points of the travel time functional. In this…