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Ma241 Advanced Mechanics
Lecturer: Dr. Sergey Frolov
Website: Link
Lagrange's Equations & Conservation Laws
The Lagrangian
Every mechanical system is completely characterised by a function
of the generalised coordinates and velocities, and maybe of time, known as the Lagrangian. In general, the Lagrangian is given by
where
and
are the kinetic and potential energies of the system.
Examples:
- Free particle of mass
:
- Particle in a central field (polar coordinates):
- Relativistic free particle:
Properties: The Lagrangian is additive, may be scaled by a constant and is defined to within an additive total time derivative of any function.
Principle of Least Action
The action of the system is
and the Principle of Least Action states that for any system developing between times
and
the action is a minimum.
We can then derive Lagrange's equations of motion by considering a variation from the actual path from
to
,
, but which has the same values at the endpoints (ie
) giving Lagrangian
We then have
and the Principle of Least Action states that this variation must be zero. Now,
and since
we rewrite this as
giving
but since the variation is zero at the endpoints the first term is zero, and hence the remaining integral must equal zero for all
, in other words the integrand is zero. Hence we have Lagrange's equations of motion:
where we now use the index i to indicate that this equation holds for each generalised coordinate (ie each degree of freedom of the system).
Conservation Laws
Energy: Suppose the Lagrangian does not depend explicitly on time. Then we can write the total time derivative as
or, using Lagrange's equations,
and hence we have
so the quantity
known as the energy, is conserved.
Linear Momentum: Consider an infinitesimal displacement
of the system. By virtue of the homogeneity of space, the Lagrangian is invariant under this displacement, which has the effect of transforming the radius vector of every particle in the system such that
and the change in the Lagrangian is
summing over the particles in the system. As
is arbitrary, the condition that the Lagrangian remains unchanged is
using Lagrange's equations. Hence we have the conserved quantity
the linear momentum of the system.
Angular Momentum: Consider an infinitesimal rotation. By virtue of the isotropy of space, the Lagrangian is again invariant. The changes in the positions and velocities are given by
where the infinitesimal rotation is represented by the vector
. The change in the Lagrangian is then
or
and then using a vector dot and cross product identity,
so the quantity
known as the angular momentum, is conserved.
Cyclic Coordinates: If the Lagrangian is such that
for some coordinate
then we say that coordinate is cyclic, and have (from Lagrange's equations) the conserved quantity
Noether's Theorem
Consider an infinitesimal transformation of the generalised coordinates such that
and
then Noether's Theorem states that the quantities
are conserved.
Proof: Consider
, then
and rewriting as in our derivation of Lagrange's equations,
and the first term is zero if the equations of motion are satisfied. Now, from our original transformation we also have that
and therefore we have
hence
and as
we have the conserved quantity
Note that in the case that the transformation leaves the Lagrangian invariant then
and so we have that
and the conserved quantity is
Further reading: A translation of Emmy Noether's original paper
Integrating the Equations of Motion
Motion In One Dimension
From the energy
we get the following
If the motion is finite we have that the period is
where the limits of integration are the limits of the motion (or turning points), given by
i.e. the points where the velocity
.
Motion In A Central Field
The Lagrangian in polar coordinates is:
and from the cyclic coordinate
we have the conserved quantity of angular momentum:
while the energy is given by:
and eliminating
we arrive at
and using
from the angular momentum equation,
These two formulae describe the motion of the particle in the central field.
The turning points of the motion as regards distance from the center occur when
, i.e. when
where we have defined the effective potential
If the range of
is bounded only by
then the motion comes from and returns to infinity.
If
the motion is finite, and lies between the two circles of radii
and
. In the time it takes for
to vary from
to
and back again the radius vector turns through an angle given by
and the condition for the orbit to close is that this angle is a rational fraction of
, i.e.
.
The presence of the centrifugal energy
in general prevents the particle from falling to the center of the field. This can only happen if the potential energy tends to
as
. Using
we find that
will tend to zero only if
i.e. the potential of the form
or
.
Collisions & Scattering
Disintegration of Particles
Elastic Collisions
Consider the collision of a particle of mass
with a particle of mass
which is initially at rest. We let
be the direction through which the motion of
is turned in the centre of mass system, and
be the directions of motion of the particles in the lab frame after the collision. We then have the following relationships:
where
is the initial velocity of
and
are the velocities of the two masses in the lab frame after the collision.
Scattering in a Central Field
Consider the deflection of a single particle of mass
in a central field
, with the centre of the field being the centre of mass of the system. The path of the particle is symmetric about a line from the centre of the field to the point of closest approach. This line has length
and makes an angle of
with the x-axis. From the symmetry of the situation we have that the scattering angle is
In polar coordinates, we have the conserved quantities of energy and angular momentum:
where
is the perpendicular distance from the centre of the field to the initial path of the particle (known as the impact parameter), and
is its initial velocity.
Using these relationships, we can derive the following formula for the angle
:
The lower limit
can be calculated using the fact that at
. This integral gives
and hence
as a function of
.
For a beam of particles, the differential scattering cross-section is given by
where dN is the number of particles scattered per unit time between
and
and n is the number of particles passing in unit time through unit area of the beam cross-section.
We assume that only particles whose initial paths lie between
and
from the centre of the field are scattered between the angles
and
. The number of such particles is equal to n multiplied by the area between two circles with radius
and
, giving
hence,
We can also express this in terms of the solid angle element
giving:
Oscillations
Oscillations in One Dimension
Oscillatory motion involves the motion of a particle about a stable equilibrium,
where the potential energy is a minimum. We can consider the potential at a point
close to
and expand the potential in a Taylor series:
and as the first two terms are constant and zero respectively, we let
and
and obtain the potential in the following form:
giving Lagrangian
and equations of motion
where
is the frequency of the oscillations. The general solution is
where
is the amplitude of the oscillations and
is the initial phase.
The total energy is
Forced Oscillations in One Dimension
The Lagrangian is
with the final term due to an external force. We have that
and the first term can be neglected as a total time derivative. We then define
so that the Lagrangian becomes
giving equations of motion
The general solution is a linear combination of the homogeneous and particular solutions.
Special Case: We consider sinusoidal driving forces, that is,
and guess a particular solution
which gives
and the general solution is then
Resonance occurs at
. We analyse this case by subtracting a second particular solution, such that we have:
We then take the limit as
and use L'hopital's rule to find:
General Case: We now let the driving force be arbitrary. Let
then
and we guess a solution
so we have
giving
and so
and the general solution is found from
We could also have chosen the lower limit of integration as being
as then the constant term
is zero.
A system performing forced oscillations gains energy. To find the energy gained by the system, consider that
using
. Now,
so the energy aquired is
Oscillations of a System With Many Degrees of Freedom
Free Oscillations: The potential of the system is now
where i runs from 1 to s, a minimum for
. We define new coordinates
giving
and again we have that the first two terms may be ignored as they are constant and zero, respectively. We then have
with both of these matrices being symmetric and positive definite, and the Lagrangian is
giving equations of motion
summing over j. We guess that solutions will be of the form
leading to
and for non-trivial solutions we must have that
which gives a polynomial of degree s in
, with positive real roots
. Having found these roots, we substitute each root individually into (*) to find the
corresponding to each root. The general solution is then a superposition of these:
The
are proportional to the minors of the determinant,
. We can then write the general solution as
or
where
the normal coordinates of the system, with arbitrary amplitudes and phases but definite frequencies. These satisfy
and we can express the Lagrangian of the system as
It is convenient to then define further coordinates
such that
Forced Oscillations: If an external force is present the Lagrangian is
and upon transforming to normal coordinates
where
and the equations of motion are:
Damped Oscillations
One-Dimensional Case: The equation of motion of a particle oscillating while experiencing a damping or frictional force is:
where
is a positive constant. Note that this cannot be derived from any Lagrangian. Dividing across by the mass as before and putting
we obtain:
We guess a solution
and the general solution is:
There are three cases to consider:
then we put
- where
and then
(light damping)
then
and the general solution is
(critical damping)
then r is negative, and the general solution is
(heavy damping)
Many-Dimensional Case: The equations of motion are:
ad our ansatz is
and for non-trivial solutions we must have
giving 2s roots for r, which must have its real part negative.
Forced Damped Oscillations
We consider only the special case where the driving force is sinusoidal. The equation of motion (in one dimension) is:
where we have written the force in complex form. Then our ansatz is
giving
and hence
Our solution x is the real part of
, so
The maximum value of b occurs when
(resonance).
Rigid Body Motion
Angular Velocity
A rigid body may be defined as a system of particles such that the distances between the particles do not vary. To describe the motion of such a body we use two sets of axes: a fixed, inertial set XYZ and a moving set which is rigidly fixed in the body and moves with it.
Consider an arbitrary infinitesimal displacement of a point
in a rigid body, and let the origin of the moving frame of axes be at the centre of mass of the body. In the inertial frame,
where
and
are the radius vectors of the point
with respect to the origin of the XYZ frame and the moving frame respectively,
is the radius vector of the centre of mass of the body, and
describes the rotation of the centre of the mass.
Dividing by
we obtain
where
is the centre of mass velocity and
is the angular velocity.
The Inertia Tensor
The kinetic energy of a rigid body is given by
summing over all particles in the body. Subbing in for
we get
The first term is simply the kinetic energy due to the translational motion of the centre of mass, while the second term is zero as our origin is the centre of mass. We thus have
where, in tensor form,
so then
where
is the total mass of the body and
is the inertia tensor, which we can write explicitly as:
The diagonal components
are called the moments of inertia about the corresponding axes.
If the body is continuous, then the sum becomes an integral:
We can always reduce the inertia tensor to diagonal form by choosing an appropriate set of axes, known as the principal axes of inertia,
, in which case
Note that none of the principal moments of inertia can exceed the sum of the other two.
A body with
is called an asymmetric top.
A body with
is called a symmetric top.
A body with
is called a spherical top.
If a body is symmetrical then the position of the centre of mass and directions of the principal axes must have the same symmetry as the body.
We can also calculate the tensor
about a different origin
. Then, if
,
Angular Momentum of a Rigid Body
We have
summing over all the particles in the body. Letting our origin be the centre of mass of the body, then
, and so
or
and in component form
If
are the principal axes of inertia, then
For a spherical top,
so
, pointing in the same direction.
For a symmetric top,
. In the case of free rotations, the angular momentum is constant. We let
be perpendicular to the plane of
and
, giving
where
is the angle between the
axis and
.
We can decompose
, where
is the precessional rotation about
, and
is along
. We have that
Equations of Motion of a Rigid Body
For each particle we have
where
is each particle's momentum, and
is the total force on each particle. Summing, we obtain
which includes only external forces.
Let
be the potential of a rigid body in an external field. Then, when the body undergoes a translation
the radius vector of each point in the body translates as
. Hence,
We now consider the total time derivative of the angular momentum:
Now, as
and
in the centre of mass frame we have that
, hence the first term is zero. Therefore,
where
is called the torque. The torque depends on the choice of origin: consider moving origin a distance
, then
giving
If the total force is zero, the torque is independent of choice of origin and the body is known as a couple.
Using a similar argument to the above, we have that
The above equations of motion could also have been derived using the Lagrangian
.
Consider the case where force is perpendicular to the torque, then we can find an
such that
and so
. Note that this choice of
is not unique as we can always transform as
where
is parallel to the torque and so contributes nothing in the cross product. This gives a line along which the force acts.
In a uniform field of force described by
then
and the total torque is given by
where
e.g. in a uniform gravitational field, where
is the centre of mass position vector.
Rotations and Euler Angles
A rotation in 2-dimensions is given by the following matrix:
We describe the rotation in 3-dimensions of the moving axes
by:
i) first rotating the axes through an angle
in the XY plane.
ii) rotating through an angle
about the line ON, which is the intersection of the
plane with the XY plane, known as the line of nodes.
iii) rotating through an angle
around the
axis.
and
are the Euler angles.
,
. This gives a general rotation matrix:
We can now find the components of
along
in terms of the Euler angles. Decomposing the rates of change of each angle onto each axis, we find:
If
are the principal axes, these expressions allow us to find the rotational kinetic energy.
For a symmetrical top,
, and
We let
be along the Z axis and let the
axis coincide with the line of nodes at the instant considered, so that
. Hence,
as
is perpendicular to the Z axis, meaning that
is constant, and
giving the precessional velocity
and
giving the angular velocity about the
axis,
Euler's Equations
Let
be a vector, then its total rate of change can be written
where the first term is the rate of change of the vector with respect to the moving axes, and the second is its rotational rate of change. We hence have that
In component form,
, and letting
we get
or in tensor notation
Letting
,
These six equations are known as Euler's equations.
Hamiltonian Dynamics
Hamilton's Equations of Motion
Consider a general Lagrangian,
. We can write its differential as
or in terms of the generalised momentum
where the quantity
is the Hamiltonian of the system, a function of
and
. We then have Hamilton's equations of motion
a set of
first-order differential equations for the quantities
Legendre's Transformation
The transformation
is an example of Legendre's transformation, which is a mathematical method for switching from one set of independent coordinates to another. Given a function
such that
such that
we can transform to a function
by rewriting the differential as
As a more involved example, we can apply Legendre's transformation to the general Lagrangian
where
is the metric of the configuration space or manifold. We have
and
We now introduce a new tensor
such that
Now,
and hence we have
first-order equations
Now we can rewrite the second equation using the product rule as
as
. Hence we have
where
is the Hamiltonian of the system.
The Routhian
It is sometimes convenient to replace only some of the generalised velocities in momentum. This leads to a function known as the Routhian, which is a Lagrangian with respect to some of the coordinates, and a Hamiltonian with respect to others.
Poisson Brackets
Consider some function
, then
summing over
. Then, using Hamilton's equations of motion,
where
called the Poisson bracket of
and
. We have that
If
is an integral of the motion, then
Thus for two arbitrary functions
of
we have
Properties of the Poisson Bracket:
-
,
and
-
and
-
-
not depending on
-
-
-
- Jacobi's identity:
- Poisson's theorem: If
integrals of the motion then
is an integral of the motion.
To prove Poisson's theorem, note that we have
and similarly,
so then
using
and Jacobi's identity.
For the coordinates
we may introduce new notation
such that
so we have
the Poisson bivector, where
so
where
is the identity
matrix. We then have that
and the equations of motion are given by
All properties of the Poisson bracket are satisfied by any constant skew-symmetric matrix
. If
then we require that Jacobi's identity be satisfied. Hence if
then we have the most general Poisson bracket. Any manifold
parametrised by
equipped with a Poisson structure is said to be a Poisson manifold.
Canonical Transformations
In the Lagrangian formalism we may always transform from one set of generalised coordinates
to another,
. Such a transformation is called a point transformation. In the Hamiltonian formalism however, the generalised momenta
are on an equal footing with the generalised coordinates, thus we may make transformations to new coordinates and momenta of the form
We wish to find such transformations such that the equations of motion of the new coordinates are of the same form as the old, that is,
Now, we can consider deriving Hamilton's equations of motion from an action principle, where we have
For the new coordinates,
and the two integrands are equivalent if they differ only by the differential of some function
of the coordinates, momenta and time, that is
such
, where the last two terms on the right are constant and so have no effect on the variational principle. A transformation satisfying this condition is said to be canonical.
So we have
which implies we have a function
such that
is called the generating function of the canonical transformation.
We can also rewrite our differential expression as
hence
Similarly we can obtain
and
such that
and
In all cases we have
The Poisson bracket is invariant under a canonical transformation,
or
Now, we have
(true as the transformed coordinates satisfy Hamilton's equations of motion). So
hence if the transformation is canonical we get
Thus we have the following relationships which can be used to check whether a transformation is canonical:
Given some function
we can generate a canonical transformation using the formulae
and
Any function
transforms as
which we can notate as
Action as a Generating Function
We may consider the action as a function of the initial and final positions and times,
Let
be fixed so that
, then
where the latter terms clearly vanish as the path is a trajectory, hence
or
so
Now let
be fixed so that
, then
and also
Similarly, if we let
be fixed we find that
so in general we have
and
corresponding to a generating function of the type
where we have
and
Hence we see that the dynamics of the system correspond to a canonical transformations (from the coordinates and momenta at the time
to the coordinates and momenta at the time
).
Liouville's Theorem
Volume in phase space is preserved.
The Hamilton-Jacobi Equation
Hamilton-Jacobi Equation
Recall the action
and
and now fix
such that
,
and
, and let
. Then consider our new action
with
giving
the last of which means our new Hamiltonian
is identically zero; which means the new coordinates and momenta are therefore constant. It also gives us the Hamilton-Jacobi equation:
So effectively what we are doing are transforming via the generating function
from some coordinates
to a set of constant coordinates
, and then solving the Hamilton-Jacobi equations for
, which allows us to calculate
as functions of
and time, thus solving the system.
Now assume we have a solution to the Hamilton-Jacobi equation,
where the
are
independent constants, and
is an arbitrary constant which will vanish as the Hamilton-Jacobi equation contains only derivatives of
. We now identify
, (i.e. we canonically transform to the new constant momenta), so we have
allowing us to evaluate the
in terms of
and
, and
where the
are our new constant coordinates and may be evaluated using initial conditions. Thus we can solve for
giving us the motion of the system.
If the Hamiltonian is independent of time,
then
and so
and
, called the abbreviated action.
Example: Harmonic Oscillator
The Hamiltonian is
and we have
as the Hamiltonian is independent of
. Then,
so
Now, we have
and we let
, then
and we have that
so
and
is determined from the initial conditions, using
.
Separation of Variables
Let us denote the Hamilton-Jacobi equation by
and suppose that
only appears in some combination
, so that
where
. We then look for a solution to the Hamilton-Jacobi equation of the form
Supposing this has been found, then
which must hold for any value of
, hence it follows that
from which we can solve for
. This process can then be repeated for each variable, assuming they each only occur in some combination
so that we obtain
Example: Cyclic Coordinate
Assume that
does not appear in the Hamiltonian, then we have by the above that
Example: Spherical Coordinates
In spherical coordinates we have the Lagragian
giving Hamiltonian
Suppose that the potential energy is of the form
then we have
thus
and
hence
and then
and if
we can repeat the process to obtain
where
and
so
Adiabatic Invariants
Consider a system undergoing finite motion and let one of the parameters
vary slowly (adiabatically) with time, such that
or
where
is the period of oscillations. Now, if
were constant the system would be closed and the energy
would be constant, hence the period
would be fixed. As
varies only slowly it follows that the energy will also vary slowly,
~
hence
is in some sense a function of
. This dependency can be expressed as the constancy of some combination of
and
, implying the existence of a function
known as an adiabatic invariant.
We look now to average the rate of change of the energy. Let
be the Hamiltonian of the system. Then
and
as
varies only slowly we can takes its rate of change out of the averaging, i.e. we average over constant
. Now,
and from Hamilton's equations of motion,
and we can write the period as
a loop integral as we compute the integration over the range of variance of
and
. Hence we have
Now the integrations are performed over a path of constant
constant
, and the momentum is then a definite function of
, so
thus
and so we have
writing
. We then obtain
We then have
an adiabatic invariant (the scaling factor is convention).
So we have
and
also
Geometrically, we can interpret
as the area of the region in phase space enclosed by the path of the particle.
Action-Angle Variables
Recall the Hamilton-Jacobi equation:
where
We now effect a canonical transformation such that
is the new momentum and
is our generating function. The new coordinate is given by
is called an action variable, and
an angle variable.
So we transform from
and
as
, so
as the energy is expressed in terms of
. We therefore have equations of motion
hence
is the phase of oscillatons.
Note that the action
is a many valued function of the coordinates.
Conditionally Periodic Motion
Special Relativity
Intervals
Lorentz Transformations
Four-vectors and Four-tensors
Relativistic Mechanics
Continuous Systems and Fields
Lagrangian Formulation of Continuous Systems
Hamiltonian Formulation of Continuous Systems
Stress-Energy Tensor
References and Links
- L.D. Landau, L.M. Lifshitz, Mechanics, 3rd Edition (Butterworth Heinemann, 1976)
- H. Goldstein, C. Poole, J. Safko, Classical Mechanics, 3rd Edition (Addison Wesley, 2000)
- L.D. Landau, L.M. Lifshitz, The Classical Theory of Fields, 4th Edition (Butterworth Heinemann, 1975)

