Generalized variational calculus for continuous and discrete mechanical systems

DOI10.3934/JGM.2018014MaRDI QIDQ1734868zbMATH OpenOpenAlexWikidataFDO

Authors Viviana Alejandra Díaz, David Martín de Diego

Publication date 27 March 2019

Published in Journal of Geometric Mechanics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/1411.3276

discrete systems mechanical systems variational calculus

Nonholonomic dynamical systems (37J60) Applications of optimal control and differential games (49N90) Variational methods for problems in mechanics (70G75)

Abstract: In this paper, we consider a generalization of variational calculus which allows us to consider in the same framework different cases of mechanical systems, for instance, Lagrangian mechanics, Hamiltonian mechanics, systems subjected to constraints, optimal control theory and so on. This generalized variational calculus is based on two main notions: the tangent lift of curves and the notion of complete lift of a vector field. Both concepts are also adapted for the case of skew-symmetric algebroids, therefore, our formalism easily extends to the case of Lie algebroids and nonholonomic systems. Hence, this framework automatically includes reduced mechanical systems subjected or not to constraints. Finally, we show that our formalism can be used to tackle the case of discrete mechanics, including reduced systems, systems subjected to constraints and discrete optimal control theory.

Review text

In this article the authors consider a generalization of variational calculus and show how to interpret several systems of geometric mechanics in this context. A generalized variational problem on \(TQ\) the tangent bundle of a manifold \(Q\) is determined by a submanifold (or more generally a subset) \(\Sigma\) of \(T^{*}TQ\). A \textit{solution} of the variational problem is a smooth curve \(\sigma: I \rightarrow Q\) which has a lift to \(\Sigma\) (that is, there is another curve \(\mu: I \rightarrow T^{*}TQ\) with image in \(\Sigma\) with projection onto the curve \( \dot{\sigma}(t)\) in \(TQ\) and a time dependent vector field such that \(\int_{I} <\mu(t),X(t, \dot{\sigma}(t))> \,dt =0\). For particular choices of \(\Sigma\), it is possible to derive the equations of motion of several mechanical systems of interest. In the second part of the paper the authors how to fit these systems into the framework of generalized variational problem: Lagrangian mechanics, nonholonomic mechanics, constrained variational calculus, Hamiltonian mechanics, sub-Riemannian geometry,higher order Lagrangian systems, systems admitting a Lie group of symmetries, Hamiltonians on skew-symmetric Lie algebroids, and optimal control theory. In the last two sections, the authors consider the discrete version of the variational calculus to obtain the discrete versions for the above systems. One may expect some interesting applications of this general setting in the future.

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