No Arabic abstract
We analyze the relation of the notion of a pluri-Lagrangian system, which recently emerged in the theory of integrable systems, to the classical notion of variational symmetry, due to E. Noether. We treat classical mechanical systems and show that, for any Lagrangian system with $m$ commuting variational symmetries, one can construct a pluri-Lagrangian 1-form in the $(m+1)$-dimensional time, whose multi-time Euler-Lagrange equations coincide with the original system supplied with $m$ commuting evolutionary flows corresponding to the variational symmetries. We also give a Hamiltonian counterpart of this construction, leading, for any system of commuting Hamiltonian flows, to a pluri-Lagrangian 1-form with coefficients depending on functions in the phase space.
In this paper, we survey our recent results on the variational formulation of nonequilibrium thermodynamics for the finite dimensional case of discrete systems as well as for the infinite dimensional case of continuum systems. Starting with the fundamental variational principle of classical mechanics, namely, Hamiltons principle, we show, with the help of thermodynamic systems with gradually increasing level complexity, how to systematically extend it to include irreversible processes. In the finite dimensional cases, we treat systems experiencing the irreversible processes of mechanical friction, heat and mass transfer, both in the adiabatically closed and in the open cases. On the continuum side, we illustrate our theory with the example of multicomponent Navier-Stokes-Fourier systems.
The main result of this note is a characterization of the Poisson commutativity of Hamilton functions in terms of their principal action functions.
This paper reports the results of an ongoing in-depth analysis of the classical trajectories of the class of non-Hermitian $PT$-symmetric Hamiltonians $H=p^2+ x^2(ix)^varepsilon$ ($varepsilongeq0$). A variety of phenomena, heretofore overlooked, have been discovered such as the existence of infinitely many separatrix trajectories, sequences of critical initial values associated with limiting classical orbits, regions of broken $PT$-symmetric classical trajectories, and a remarkable topological transition at $varepsilon=2$. This investigation is a work in progress and it is not complete; many features of complex trajectories are still under study.
We present a variational approach which shows that the wave functions belonging to quantum systems in different potential landscapes, are pairwise linked to each other through a generalized continuity equation. This equation contains a source term proportional to the potential difference. In case the potential landscapes are related by a linear symmetry transformation in a finite domain of the embedding space, the derived continuity equation leads to generalized currents which are divergence free within this spatial domain. In a single spatial dimension these generalized currents are invariant. In contrast to the standard continuity equation, originating from the abelian $U(1)$-phase symmetry of the standard Lagrangian, the generalized continuity equations derived here, are based on a non-abelian $SU(2)$-transformation of a Super-Lagrangian. Our approach not only provides a rigorous theoretical framework to study quantum mechanical systems in potential landscapes possessing local symmetries, but it also reveals a general duality between quantum states corresponding to different Schr{o}dinger problems.
Invariance properties of classes in the variational sequence suggested to Krupka et al. the idea that there should exist a close correspondence between the notions of variationality of a differential form and invariance of its exterior derivative. It was shown by them that the invariance of a closed Helmholtz form of a dynamical form is equivalent with local variationality of the Lie derivative of the dynamical form, so that the latter is locally the Euler--Lagrange form of a Lagrangian. We show that the corresponding local system of Euler--Lagrange forms is variationally equivalent to a global Euler--Lagrange form.