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The Herglotz problem is a generalization of the fundamental problem of the calculus of variations. In this paper, we consider a class of non-differentiable functions, where the dynamics is described by a scale derivative. Necessary…
First part of a didactic sequence of activities on some topics of Astronomy, related mainly with the day and night cycle and the seasons, including the construction of a simplified solar system model and its use as a resource to discuss…
Orthogonal polynomials are of fundamental importance in many fields of mathematics and science, therefore the study of a particular family is always relevant. In this manuscript, we present a survey of some general results of the Hermite…
In this paper, I outline some problems in the students' understanding of the explanation of recoil motion when introduced to them in the context of Newton's third law. I propose to explain the origin of recoil from a microscopic point of…
We equip a family of algebras whose noncommutativity is of Lie type with a derivation based differential calculus obtained, upon suitably using both inner and outer derivations, as a reduction of a redundant calculus over the Moyal four…
This work presents a pedagogical and self-contained derivation of the first-order effective Hamiltonian for the two-mode Jaynes-Cummings model in the dispersive regime. A perturbative unitary transformation removes nonresonant atom-field…
We give a proper fractional extension of the classical calculus of variations by considering variational functionals with a Lagrangian depending on a combined Caputo fractional derivative and the classical derivative. Euler-Lagrange…
A long-standing, unanswered question regarding Euclid's Elements concerns the absence of a theorem for the concurrence of the altitudes of a triangle, and the possible reasons for this omission. In the centuries following Euclid, a…
We discuss a new method to compute the canonical height of an algebraic point on a hyperelliptic jacobian over a number field. The method does not require any geometrical models, neither $p$-adic nor complex analytic ones. In the case of…
We describe a simple geometrical derivation of the formula for reflection of light from a uniformly moving plane mirror directly from the postulates of special relativity.
A simple formula is derived for the Ricci scalar curvature of any smooth level set ${\psi(x_0,x_1,...,x_n)=C}$ embedded in the Euclidean space $ \mathbb R^{n+1}$, in terms of the gradient $ \nabla\psi$ and the Laplacian $ \Delta\psi$. Some…
Using techniques from geometry and complex analysis in their simplest form, we present a derivation of electric fields on surfaces with non-trivial topology. A byproduct of this analysis is an intuitive visualization of elliptic functions…
Motivated by the considerable success of alternative theories of gravity, we consider the toy model of a higher derivative Lagrangian theory, namely the Pais-Uhlenbeck oscillator studied in a recent paper by Hawking-Hertog. Its Euclidean…
We obtain several formulas for the Euclidean distance degree (ED degree) of an arbitrary nonsingular variety in projective space: in terms of Chern and Segre classes, Milnor classes, Chern-Schwartz-MacPherson classes, and an extremely…
We give a rigorous derivation of the Fourier transform of the Heaviside function within a framework for tempered distributions that is suitable for undergraduate engineering and mathematics students. The proofs rely on fundamental concepts…
In this didactic note, we describe a procedure to derive successive approximations of $\pi$ using Euler Beta functions. It is an interesting exercise for undergraduate students, since it involves polynomial roots, integral calculations,…
We study the Hydrogen atom as a quantum mechanical system with a Coulomb like potential, with a semiclassical approach based on an effective description of quantum mechanics. This treatment allows us to describe the quantum state of the…
Periodic classical trajectories are of fundamental importance both in classical and quantum physics. Here we develop path integral techniques to investigate such trajectories in an arbitrary, not necessarily energy conserving hamiltonian…
The aim of this paper is to study the relationship between Hamiltonian dynamics and constrained variational calculus. We describe both using the notion of Lagrangian submanifolds of convenient symplectic manifolds and using the so-called…
Dynamical triangulations of four-dimensional Euclidean quantum gravity give rise to an interesting, numerically accessible model of quantum gravity. We give a simple introduction to the model and discuss two particularly important issues.…