Related papers: Lagrangian mechanics without ordinary differential…
Classically time is kept fixed for infinitesimal variations in problems in mechanics. Apparently, there appears to be no mathematical justification in the literature for this standard procedure. This can be explained canonically by…
An alternative class of the Lagrangian called the multiplicative form is suc- cessfully derived for a system with one degree of freedom for both non-relativistic and relativistic cases. This new Lagrangian can be considered as a…
In this paper, we study the Lagrangian functions for a class of second-order differential systems arising from physics. For such systems, we present necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of Lagrangian functions. Based on the…
Graded Lagrangian formalism in terms of a Grassmann-graded variational bicomplex on graded manifolds is developed in a very general setting. This formalism provides the comprehensive description of reducible degenerate Lagrangian systems,…
Textbook treatments of classical mechanics typically assume that the Lagrangian is nonsingular. That is, the matrix of second derivatives of the Lagrangian with respect to the velocities is invertible. This assumption insures that (i)…
In this article one introduces a formalism of classical mechanics where complex Lagrangian functions are admitted. The results include complex versions of the Lagrangian function, of the Euler-Lagrange equation, of the Hamilton principle, a…
A comparative analysis of two different versions of the Legendre transformation is presented. We provide an almost complete although somewhat superficial review of the geometric background for analytical mechanics. Complete coordinate…
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 simplest massive Lagrangian, invariant for the global SU(2) transformation, is constructed.
The alternative version of Hamiltonian formalism for higher-derivative theories is proposed. As compared with the standard Ostrogradski approach it has the following advantages: (i) the Lagrangian, when expressed in terms of new variables…
An extension of the Legendre transform to non-convex functions with vanishing Hessian as a mix of envelope and general solutions of the Clairaut equation is proposed. Applying this to systems with constraints, the procedure of finding a…
The ordinary continued fractions expansion of a real number is based on the Euclidean division. Variants of the latter yield variants of the former, all encompassed by a more general Dynamical Systems framework. For all these variants the…
We obtain new regularity conditions for problems of calculus of variations with higher-order derivatives. As a corollary, we get non-occurrence of the Lavrentiev phenomenon. Our main regularity result asserts that autonomous integral…
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…
Problems involving rolling without slipping or no sideways skidding, to name a few, introduce velocity-dependent constraints that can be efficiently treated by the method of Lagrange multipliers in the Lagrangian formulation of the…
A direct reformulation of the Hamiltonian formalism in terms of the intrinsic geometry of infinitely prolonged differential equations is obtained. Concepts of spatial equation and spatial-gauge symmetry of a Lagrangian system of equations…
We discuss a recently proposed variational principle for deriving the variational equations associated to any Lagrangian system. The principle gives simultaneously the Lagrange and the variational equations of the system. We define a new…
It is known that some equations of differential geometry are derived from variational principle in form of Euler-Lagrange equations. The equations of geodesic flow in Riemannian geometry is an example. Conversely, having Lagrangian…
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…
In Continuum Mechanic a simple material body $\mathcal{B}$ is represeted by a three-dimensional differentiable manifold and the configuration space is given by the space of embeddings $Emb \left( \mathcal{B} , \mathbb{R}^{n} \right)$. We…