Generalized Hamiltonian forms of dissipative mechanical systems via a unified approach (Q2220111)

This paper presents a Hamiltonian formulation of one-dimensional dissipative systems of the form \(\ddot x = f(x,\dot x)\), where \(x\) is a generalized coordinate. The main idea is to define a Hamiltonian function \(H(x,p)\) as a first integral \(I(x,\dot x)\), found by solving the characteristic equation of the system. In order to construct the momentum \(p\), the authors introduce the Lagrangian function \(L(x,\dot x)\) via the Legendre transformation \(I(x,\dot x) = \dot x p - L(x,\dot x)\). The momentum \(p\) obtained in this way is not unique since it depends on an arbitrary function \(\varphi (x)\). This procedure relies on the ability to solve explicitly the characteristic equation in order to obtain the first integral \(I(x,\dot x)\). The proposed method is not new. The authors study several concrete examples such as the Mathew-Lakshmanan oscillator, Bernoulli-type differential equations, oscillations of a uniform cantilever beam and radial oscillations of a hollow sphere.