A geometric setup for control theory is presented. The argument is developed through the study of the extremals of action functionals defined on piecewise differentiable curves, in the presence of differentiable non-holonomic constraints. Special emp
hasis is put on the tensorial aspects of the theory. To start with, the kinematical foundations, culminating in the so called variational equation, are put on geometrical grounds, via the introduction of the concept of infinitesimal control . On the same basis, the usual classification of the extremals of a variational problem into normal and abnormal ones is also rationalized, showing the existence of a purely kinematical algorithm assigning to each admissible curve a corresponding abnormality index, defined in terms of a suitable linear map. The whole machinery is then applied to constrained variational calculus. The argument provides an interesting revisitation of Pontryagin maximum principle and of the Erdmann-Weierstrass corner conditions, as well as a proof of the classical Lagrange multipliers method and a local interpretation of Pontryagins equations as dynamical equations for a free (singular) Hamiltonian system. As a final, highly non-trivial topic, a sufficient condition for the existence of finite deformations with fixed endpoints is explicitly stated and proved.
A geometric setup for constrained variational calculus is presented. The analysis deals with the study of the extremals of an action functional defined on piecewise differentiable curves, subject to differentiable, non-holonomic constraints. Special
attention is paid to the tensorial aspects of the theory. As far as the kinematical foundations are concerned, a fully covariant scheme is developed through the introduction of the concept of infinitesimal control. The standard classification of the extremals into normal and abnormal ones is discussed, pointing out the existence of an algebraic algorithm assigning to each admissible curve a corresponding abnormality index, related to the co-rank of a suitable linear map. Attention is then shifted to the study of the first variation of the action functional. The analysis includes a revisitation of Pontryagins equations and of the Lagrange multipliers method, as well as a reformulation of Pontryagins algorithm in hamiltonian terms. The analysis is completed by a general result, concerning the existence of finite deformations with fixed endpoints.
A gauge-invariant formulation of constrained variational calculus, based on the introduction of the bundle of affine scalars over the configuration manifold, is presented. In the resulting setup, the Lagrangian is replaced by a section of a suitable
principal fibre bundle over the velocity space. A geometric rephrasement of Pontryagins maximum principle, showing the equivalence between a constrained variational problem in the state space and a canonically associated free one in a higher affine bundle, is proved.
The paper is devoted to prove the existence of a local solution of the Hamilton-Jacobi equation in field theory, whence the general solution of the field equations can be obtained. The solution is adapted to the choice of the submanifold where the in
itial data of the field equations are assigned. Finally, a technique to obtain the general solution of the field equations, starting from the given initial manifold, is deduced.
Within the geometrical framework developed in arXiv:0705.2362, the problem of minimality for constrained calculus of variations is analysed among the class of differentiable curves. A fully covariant representation of the second variation of the acti
on functional, based on a suitable gauge transformation of the Lagrangian, is explicitly worked out. Both necessary and sufficient conditions for minimality are proved, and are then reinterpreted in terms of Jacobi fields.
A new approach leading to the formulation of the Hamilton-Jacobi equation for field theories is investigated within the framework of jet-bundles and multi-symplectic manifolds. An algorithm associating classes of solutions to given sets of boundary c
onditions of the field equations is provided. The paper also puts into evidence the intrinsic limits of the Hamilton-Jacobi method as an algorithm to determine families of solutions of the field equations, showing how the choice of the boundary data is often limited by compatibility conditions.
