Conformal Hamiltonian systems (Q5959632)

Conservative mechanical systems are described by solutions to Hamilton's equations. The diffeomorphisms which make up the flow of the system have the property that they preserve the symplectic form of the phase space. When dissipative forces such as friction are introduced, then the description is more complicated. In this paper, the authors describe the vector field and flow characteristics for such situations. A vector field \(X\) is conformal if \(L_X \omega = c\omega\) for a constant \(c\), where \(L\) is the Lie derivative. This notion is really only good when the underlying symplectic manifold \((M,\omega)\) is exact i.e. \(\omega = -d\theta\) for some \(1\)-form \(\theta\). For example, the authors describe the conformal vector fields for the case of the canonical cotangent bundle, the most important manifold in practical applications. Formulas are developed relating conformal vector fields to Poisson brackets, symmetry, reduction etc. and the authors extend their approach to Poisson manifolds and relate this to the standard foliation by symplectic leaves.