We present a method devised by Jacobi to derive Lagrangians of any second-order differential equation: it consists in finding a Jacobi Last Multiplier. We illustrate the easiness and the power of Jacobis method by applying it to several equations and also a class of equations studied by Musielak with his own method [Musielak ZE, Standard and non-standard Lagrangians for dissipative dynamical systems with variable coefficients. J. Phys. A: Math. Theor. 41 (2008) 055205 (17pp)], and in particular to a Li`enard type nonlinear oscillator, and a second-order Riccati equation.
We perform the study of the stability of the Lorenz system by using the Jacobi stability analysis, or the Kosambi-Cartan-Chern (KCC) theory. The Lorenz model plays an important role for understanding hydrodynamic instabilities and the nature of the turbulence, also representing a non-trivial testing object for studying non-linear effects. The KCC theory represents a powerful mathematical method for the analysis of dynamical systems. In this approach we describe the evolution of the Lorenz system in geometric terms, by considering it as a geodesic in a Finsler space. By associating a non-linear connection and a Berwald type connection, five geometrical invariants are obtained, with the second invariant giving the Jacobi stability of the system. The Jacobi (in)stability is a natural generalization of the (in)stability of the geodesic flow on a differentiable manifold endowed with a metric (Riemannian or Finslerian) to the non-metric setting. In order to apply the KCC theory we reformulate the Lorenz system as a set of two second order non-linear differential equations. The geometric invariants associated to this system (nonlinear and Berwald connections), and the deviation curvature tensor, as well as its eigenvalues, are explicitly obtained. The Jacobi stability of the equilibrium points of the Lorenz system is studied, and the condition of the stability of the equilibrium points is obtained. Finally, we consider the time evolution of the components of the deviation vector near the equilibrium points.
We introduce two remarkable identities written in terms of single commutators and anticommutators for any three elements of arbitrary associative algebra. One is a consequence of other (fundamental identity). From the fundamental identity, we derive a set of four identities (one of which is the Jacobi identity) represented in terms of double commutators and anticommutators. We establish that two of the four identities are independent and show that if the fundamental identity holds for an algebra, then the multiplication operation in that algebra is associative. We find a generalization of the obtained results to the super case and give a generalization of the fundamental identity in the case of arbitrary elements. For nondegenerate even symplectic (super)manifolds, we discuss analogues of the fundamental identity.
Mechanical systems (i.e., one-dimensional field theories) with constraints are the focus of this paper. In the classical theory, systems with infinite-dimensional targets are considered as well (this then encompasses also higher-dimensional field theories in the hamiltonian formalism). The properties of the Hamilton-Jacobi (HJ) action are described in details and several examples are explicitly computed (including nonabelian Chern-Simons theory, where the HJ action turns out to be the gauged Wess-Zumino-Witten action). Perturbative quantization, limited in this note to finite-dimensional targets, is performed in the framework of the Batalin-Vilkovisky (BV) formalism in the bulk and of the Batalin-Fradkin-Vilkovisky (BFV) formalism at the endpoints. As a sanity check of the method, it is proved that the semiclassical contribution of the physical part of the evolution operator is still given by the HJ action. Several examples are computed explicitly. In particular, it is shown that the toy model for nonabelian Chern-Simons theory and the toy model for 7D Chern-Simons theory with nonlinear Hitchin polarization do not have quantum corrections in the physical part (the extension of these results to the actual cases is discussed in the companion paper [arXiv:2012.13983]). Background material for both the classical part (symplectic geometry, generalized generating functions, HJ actions, and the extension of these concepts to infinite-dimensional manifolds) and the quantum part (BV-BFV formalism) is provided.
By exploring a spinor space whose elements carry a spin 1/2 representation of the Lorentz group and satisfy the the Fierz-Pauli-Kofink identities we show that certain symmetries operations form a Lie group. Moreover, we discuss the reflex of the Dirac dynamics in the spinor space. In particular, we show that the usual dynamics for massless spinors in the spacetime is related to an incompressible fluid behavior in the spinor space.