Book Details

Geometric Mechanics on Riemannian Manifolds

Publication year: 2005

ISBN: 978-0-8176-4421-5

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This work presents a purely geometric treatment of problems in physics involving quantum harmonic oscillators, quartic oscillators, minimal surfaces, and Schrödinger's, Einstein's and Newton's equations. Historically, problems in these areas were approached using the Fourier transform or path integrals, although in some cases (e.g., the case of quartic oscillators) these methods do not work. New geometric methods are introduced in the work that have the advantage of providing quantitative or at least qualitative descriptions of operators, many of which cannot be treated by other methods. And, conservation laws of the Euler–Lagrange equations are employed to solve the equations of motion qualitatively when quantitative analysis is not possible. It includes : Lagrangian formalism on Riemannian manifolds; energy momentum tensor and conservation laws; Hamiltonian formalism; Hamilton–Jacobi theory; harmonic functions, maps, and geodesics; fundamental solutions for heat operators with potential; and a variational approach to mechanical curves.


Subject: Mathematics and Statistics, Calculus of Variations, Euler–Lagrange equation, Fourier transform, Minimal surface, Potential, differential geometry, manifold, partial differential equation