Skip to main content

Global Formulations of Lagrangian and Hamiltonian Dynamics on Manifolds

A Geometric Approach to Modeling and Analysis

  • Textbook
  • © 2018

Overview

  • Accessible to a broad audience of scientists and engineers
  • Non-trivial applications worked out in detail, allowing reader to easily apply techniques to real-world problems
  • Includes exercises at the end of every chapter
  • Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

Part of the book series: Interaction of Mechanics and Mathematics (IMM)

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this book

eBook USD 79.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 99.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access

Licence this eBook for your library

Institutional subscriptions

Table of contents (10 chapters)

Keywords

About this book

This book provides an accessible introduction to the variational formulation of Lagrangian and Hamiltonian mechanics, with a novel emphasis on global descriptions of the dynamics, which is a significant conceptual departure from more traditional approaches based on the use of local coordinates on the configuration manifold. In particular, we introduce a general methodology for obtaining globally valid equations of motion on configuration manifolds that are Lie groups, homogeneous spaces, and embedded manifolds, thereby avoiding the difficulties associated with coordinate singularities.

The material is presented in an approachable fashion by considering concrete configuration manifolds of increasing complexity, which then motivates and naturally leads to the more general formulation that follows. Understanding of the material is enhanced by numerous in-depth examples throughout the book, culminating in non-trivial applications involving multi-body systems.

This book is written for a general audience of mathematicians, engineers, and physicists with a basic knowledge of mechanics. Some basic background in differential geometry is helpful, but not essential, as the relevant concepts are introduced in the book, thereby making the material accessible to a broad audience, and suitable for either self-study or as the basis for a graduate course in applied mathematics, engineering, or physics.

Reviews

“This book presents a monograph on foundational geometric principles of Lagrangian and Hamiltonian dynamics and their application in studying important physical systems. … Throughout the book numerous examples of Lagrangian and Hamiltonian systems are included … . It is very clearly written and it will be especially useful both for beginning researchers and for graduate students in applied mathematics, physics, or engineering.” ( M. Eugenia Rosado María, Mathematical Reviews, May, 2018)


“The starting point of this impressive textbook is the important fact that there are remarkable situations where the variables that describe a dynamical system do not lie in a vector space (i.e., a simple at algebraic structure) but rather lie in a geometrical setting allowing the differential calculus, namely a differential manifold. … In conclusion, this book is extremely useful for each reader who wishes to develop a modern knowledge of analytical mechanics.” (Mircea Crâşmăreanu, zbMATH 1381.70005, 2018)



“This well-written and expansive book is ambitious in its scope in that it aims at sound and thorough pedagogy as far as its subject matter is concerned, and it also aims at preparing the reader for computational work … . There are many good examples accompanying or even guiding the text, as well as extensive problem sets for the properly serious student. This book … prove very valuable to its readership, be they mathematicians, engineers, or physicists.” (Michael Berg, MAA Reviews, November, 2017)

Authors and Affiliations

  • The George Washington University, Washington, District of Columbia, USA

    Taeyoung Lee

  • Department of Mathematics, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, USA

    Melvin Leok

  • Department of Aerospace Engineering, The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA

    N. Harris McClamroch

Bibliographic Information

Publish with us