Tudor S. Ratiu - Böcker

Symmetry has always played an important role in mechanics, from fundamental formulations of basic principles to concrete applications. The theme of the book is to develop the basic theory and applications of mechanics with an emphasis on the role of symmetry. In recent times, the interest in mechanics, and in symmetry techniques in particular, has accelerated because of developments in dynamical systems, the use of geometric methods and new applications to integrable and chaotic systems, control systems, stability and bifurcation, and the study of specific rigid, fluid, plasma and elastic systems. Introduction to Mechanics and Symmetry lays the basic foundation for these topics and includes numerous specific applications, making it beneficial to physicists and engineers. This text has specific examples and applications showing how the theory works, and up-to-date techniques, all of which makes it accessible to a wide variety of readers, expecially senior undergraduate and graduate students in mathematics, physics and engineering. For this second edition, the text has been rewritten and updated for clarity throughout, with a major revamping and expansion of the exercises.Internet supplements containing additional material are also available on-line.

One of the world�s foremost geometers, Alan Weinstein has made deep contributions to symplectic and differential geometry, Lie theory, mechanics, and related fields. Written in his honor, the invited papers in this volume reflect the active and vibrant research in these areas and are a tribute to Weinstein�s ongoing influence. The well-recognized contributors to this text cover a broad range of topics: Induction and reduction for systems with symmetry, symplectic geometry and topology, geometric quantization, the Weinstein Conjecture, Poisson algebra and geometry, Dirac structures, deformations for Lie group actions, Kahler geometry of moduli spaces, theory and applications of Lagrangian and Hamiltonian mechanics and dynamics, symplectic and Poisson groupoids, and quantum representations.

Symmetry has always played an important role in mechanics, from fundamental formulations of basic principles to concrete applications. The theme of the book is to develop the basic theory and applications of mechanics with an emphasis on the role of symmetry. In recent times, the interest in mechanics, and in symmetry techniques in particular, has accelerated because of developments in dynamical systems, the use of geometric methods and new applications to integrable and chaotic systems, control systems, stability and bifurcation, and the study of specific rigid, fluid, plasma and elastic systems. Introduction to Mechanics and Symmetry lays the basic foundation for these topics and includes numerous specific applications, making it beneficial to physicists and engineers. This text has specific examples and applications showing how the theory works, and up-to-date techniques, all of which makes it accessible to a wide variety of readers, expecially senior undergraduate and graduate students in mathematics, physics and engineering. For this second edition, the text has been rewritten and updated for clarity throughout, with a major revamping and expansion of the exercises. Internet supplements containing additional material are also available on-line.

The use of the symmetries of a physical system in the study of its dynamics has a long history that goes back to the founders of c1assical mechanics. Symmetry-based tech­ niques are often implemented by using the integrals 01 motion that one can sometimes associate to these symmetries. The integrals of motion of a dynamical system are quan­ tities that are conserved along the fiow of that system. In c1assieal mechanics symme­ tries are usually induced by point transformations, that is, they come exc1usively from symmetries of the configuration space; the intimate connection between integrals of motion and symmetries was formalized in this context by NOETHER (1918). This idea can be generalized to many symmetries of the entire phase space of a given system, by associating to the Lie algebra action encoding the symmetry, a function from the phase space to the dual of the Lie algebra. This map, whose level sets are preserved by the dynamics of any symmetrie system, is referred to in modern terms as a momentum map of the symmetry, a construction already present in the work of LIE (1890). Its remarkable properties were rediscovered by KOSTANT (1965) and SOURlAU (1966, 1969) in the general case and by SMALE (1970) for the lifted action to the co tangent bundle of a configuration space. For the his tory of the momentum map we refer to WEINSTEIN (1983b) and MARSDEN AND RATIU (1999), §11. 2.

Symmetrie hat in der Mechanik schon immer eine große Rolle gespielt - von der grundlegenden Formulierung elementarer Theorien bis hin zu konkreten Anwendungen. Thema dieses Buches ist die Entwicklung der zugrunde liegenden Theorien, wobei der Rolle der Symmetrie besonderes Gewicht beigemessen wird. Ursache hierfür sind neben den Entwicklungen im Bereich dynamischer Systeme auch der Einsatz geometrischer Verfahren und neuer Anwendungen bei integrierbaren und chaotischen Systemen, Steuerungssystemen, Stabilität und Bifurkation sowie die Erforschung starrer, flüssiger, plasmaförmiger und elastischer Systeme. Das vorliegende Lehrbuch stellt die Grundlagen für die Behandlung dieser Themen bereit und schließt zahlreiche spezifische Anwendungen mit ein, wodurch es insbesondere auch für Physiker und Ingenieure interessant ist. Ausgewählte Beispiele und Anwendungen sowie aktuelle Verfahren/Techniken veranschaulichen die dargelegte Theorie.