Inverse problem and equivalent contact systems (Q2127668)

A contact Lagrangian system is given by a Lagrangian function \(L:TQ\times \mathbb{R}\to \mathbb{R}\), where \(Q\) is an \(n\)-dimensional manifold. The inverse problem for contact Lagrangian systems is the following: Given a second-order differential equation on \(TQ\times \mathbb{R}\), determine if there exists a contact Lagrangian function \(L:TQ\times \mathbb{R}\to \mathbb{R}\) such that this differential equation comes from a variational equation for \(L\). A number of important results related to variational inverse problems and contact Lagrangian systems is presented. Extended contact Lagrangian/Hamiltonian systems are considered. Some results on the equivalence of extended contact systems are also obtained.