Nonholonomic constraints in classical field theories (Q1853806)

The authors give a multisymplectic setting for first-order field theories of nonholonomic constraints. In other words, the authors consider Lagrangian which depends on the first derivatives of the fields, and not all values are permitted. As an example, the authors give some comments on continuum mechanics. They develop an appropriate infinite-dimensional setting in the space of Cauchy data and prove that the constraint forces can be integrated over the Cauchy surface to obtain a constrained 2-form on the space of Cauchy data. The corresponding equations of motion are obtained by modifying the usual 2-form with the constrained 2-form.