Hamiltonianmechanics

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Hamiltonianmechanicsisatheorydevelopedasareformulationofclassicalmechanicsandpredictsthesame
outcomesasnonHamiltonianclassicalmechanics.Itusesadifferentmathematicalformalism,providinga
moreabstractunderstandingofthetheory.Historically,itwasanimportantreformulationofclassical
mechanics,whichlatercontributedtotheformulationofstatisticalmechanicsandquantummechanics.

HamiltonianmechanicswasfirstformulatedbyWilliamRowanHamiltonin1833,startingfromLagrangian
mechanics,apreviousreformulationofclassicalmechanicsintroducedbyJosephLouisLagrangein1788.

Contents
1 Overview
1.1 Basicphysicalinterpretation
1.2 CalculatingaHamiltonianfromaLagrangian
2 DerivingHamilton'sequations
3 AsareformulationofLagrangianmechanics
4 GeometryofHamiltoniansystems
5 GeneralizationtoquantummechanicsthroughPoissonbracket
6 Mathematicalformalism
7 Riemannianmanifolds
8 SubRiemannianmanifolds
9 Poissonalgebras
10 Chargedparticleinanelectromagneticfield
11 Relativisticchargedparticleinanelectromagneticfield
12 Seealso
13 References
13.1 Footnotes
13.2 Sources
14 Externallinks

Overview
InHamiltonianmechanics,aclassicalphysicalsystemisdescribedbyasetofcanonicalcoordinates
,whereeachcomponentofthecoordinate isindexedtotheframeofreferenceofthesystem.

ThetimeevolutionofthesystemisuniquelydefinedbyHamilton'sequations:[1]

where istheHamiltonian,whichoftencorrespondstothetotalenergyofthesystem.[2]Fora
closedsystem,itisthesumofthekineticandpotentialenergyinthesystem.
InNewtonianmechanics,thetimeevolutionisobtainedbycomputingthetotalforcebeingexertedoneach
particleofthesystem,andfromNewton'ssecondlaw,thetimeevolutionsofbothpositionandvelocityare
computed.Incontrast,inHamiltonianmechanics,thetimeevolutionisobtainedbycomputingtheHamiltonian
ofthesysteminthegeneralizedcoordinatesandinsertingitintheHamilton'sequations.Thisapproachis
equivalenttotheoneusedinLagrangianmechanics.Infact,asisshownbelow,theHamiltonianisthe
LegendretransformoftheLagrangianwhenholdingqandtfixedanddenotingpasthedualvariable,andthus
bothapproachesgivethesameequationsforthesamegeneralizedmomentum.Themainmotivationtouse
HamiltonianmechanicsinsteadofLagrangianmechanicscomesfromthesymplecticstructureofHamiltonian
systems.

WhileHamiltonianmechanicscanbeusedtodescribesimplesystemssuchasabouncingball,apendulumor
anoscillatingspringinwhichenergychangesfromkinetictopotentialandbackagainovertime,itsstrengthis
showninmorecomplexdynamicsystems,suchasplanetaryorbitsincelestialmechanics.[3]Themoredegrees
offreedomthesystemhas,themorecomplicateditstimeevolutionisand,inmostcases,itbecomeschaotic.

Basicphysicalinterpretation

AsimpleinterpretationoftheHamiltonianmechanicscomesfromitsapplicationonaonedimensionalsystem
consistingofoneparticleofmassm.TheHamiltonianrepresentsthetotalenergyofthesystem,whichisthe
sumofkineticandpotentialenergy,traditionallydenotedTandV,respectively.Hereqisthespacecoordinate
andpisthemomentum,mv.Then

NotethatTisafunctionofpalone,whileVisafunctionofqalone(i.e.,TandVarescleronomic).

Inthisexample,thetimederivativeofthemomentumpequalstheNewtonianforce,andsothefirstHamilton
equationmeansthattheforceequalsthenegativegradientofpotentialenergy.Thetimederivativeofqisthe
velocity,andsothesecondHamiltonequationmeansthattheparticlesvelocityequalsthederivativeofits
kineticenergywithrespecttoitsmomentum.

CalculatingaHamiltonianfromaLagrangian

GivenaLagrangianintermsofthegeneralizedcoordinates andgeneralizedvelocities andtime,

1.ThemomentaarecalculatedbydifferentiatingtheLagrangianwithrespecttothe(generalized)velocities:

2.Thevelocities areexpressedintermsofthemomenta byinvertingtheexpressionsintheprevious

step.
3.TheHamiltonianiscalculatedusingtheusualdefinitionof astheLegendretransformationof :

Thenthevelocitiesaresubstitutedforthroughtheaboveresults.

DerivingHamilton'sequations
Hamilton'sequationscanbederivedbylookingathowthetotaldifferentialoftheLagrangiandependsontime,
generalizedpositions andgeneralizedvelocities [4]
Thegeneralizedmomentaweredefinedas

IfthisissubstitutedintothetotaldifferentialoftheLagrangian,onegets

Thiscanberewrittenas

whichafterrearrangingleadsto

ThetermonthelefthandsideisjusttheHamiltonianthatdefinedbefore,therefore

ItisalsopossibletocalculatethetotaldifferentialoftheHamiltonian withrespecttotimedirectly,similarto
whatwascarriedonwiththeLagrangian above,yielding:

Itfollowsfromtheprevioustwoindependentequationsthattheirrighthandsidesareequalwitheachother.
Theresultis

Sincethiscalculationwasdoneoffshell,onecanassociatecorrespondingtermsfrombothsidesofthis
equationtoyield:

Onshell,Lagrange'sequationsindicatethat

Arearrangementofthisyields
ThusHamilton'sequationsholdonshell:

AsareformulationofLagrangianmechanics
StartingwithLagrangianmechanics,theequationsofmotionarebasedongeneralizedcoordinates

andmatchinggeneralizedvelocities

WewritetheLagrangianas

withthesubscriptedvariablesunderstoodtorepresentallNvariablesofthattype.Hamiltonianmechanicsaims
toreplacethegeneralizedvelocityvariableswithgeneralizedmomentumvariables,alsoknownasconjugate
momenta.Bydoingso,itispossibletohandlecertainsystems,suchasaspectsofquantummechanics,that
wouldotherwisebeevenmorecomplicated.

Foreachgeneralizedvelocity,thereisonecorrespondingconjugatemomentum,definedas:

InCartesiancoordinates,thegeneralizedmomentaarepreciselythephysicallinearmomenta.Incircularpolar
coordinates,thegeneralizedmomentumcorrespondingtotheangularvelocityisthephysicalangular
momentum.Foranarbitrarychoiceofgeneralizedcoordinates,itmaynotbepossibletoobtainanintuitive
interpretationoftheconjugatemomenta.

Onethingwhichisnottooobviousinthiscoordinatedependentformulationisthatdifferentgeneralized
coordinatesarereallynothingmorethandifferentcoordinatepatchesonthesamesymplecticmanifold(see
Mathematicalformalism,below).

TheHamiltonianistheLegendretransformoftheLagrangian:

Ifthetransformationequationsdefiningthegeneralizedcoordinatesareindependentoft,andtheLagrangianis
asumofproductsoffunctions(inthegeneralizedcoordinates)whicharehomogeneousoforder0,1or2,then
itcanbeshownthatHisequaltothetotalenergyE=T+V.

Eachsideinthedefinitionof producesadifferential:
Substitutingthepreviousdefinitionoftheconjugatemomentaintothisequationandmatchingcoefficients,we
obtaintheequationsofmotionofHamiltonianmechanics,knownasthecanonicalequationsofHamilton:

Hamilton'sequationsconsistof2nfirstorderdifferentialequations,whileLagrange'sequationsconsistofn
secondorderequations.However,Hamilton'sequationsusuallydon'treducethedifficultyoffindingexplicit
solutions.Theystilloffersomeadvantages,sinceimportanttheoreticalresultscanbederivedbecause
coordinatesandmomentaareindependentvariableswithnearlysymmetricroles.

Hamilton'sequationshaveanotheradvantageoverLagrange'sequations:ifasystemhasasymmetry,suchthat
acoordinatedoesnotoccurintheHamiltonian,thecorrespondingmomentumisconserved,andthatcoordinate
canbeignoredintheotherequationsoftheset.Effectively,thisreducestheproblemfromncoordinatesto(n
1)coordinates.IntheLagrangianframework,ofcoursetheresultthatthecorrespondingmomentumis
conservedstillfollowsimmediately,butallthegeneralizedvelocitiesstilloccurintheLagrangianwestill
havetosolveasystemofequationsinncoordinates.[2]

TheLagrangianandHamiltonianapproachesprovidethegroundworkfordeeperresultsinthetheoryof
classicalmechanics,andforformulationsofquantummechanics.

GeometryofHamiltoniansystems
AHamiltoniansystemmaybeunderstoodasafiberbundleEovertimeR,withthefibersEt,tR,beingthe
positionspace.TheLagrangianisthusafunctiononthejetbundleJoverEtakingthefiberwiseLegendre
transformoftheLagrangianproducesafunctiononthedualbundleovertimewhosefiberattisthecotangent
spaceT*Et,whichcomesequippedwithanaturalsymplecticform,andthislatterfunctionistheHamiltonian.

GeneralizationtoquantummechanicsthroughPoissonbracket
Hamilton'sequationsaboveworkwellforclassicalmechanics,butnotforquantummechanics,sincethe
differentialequationsdiscussedassumethatonecanspecifytheexactpositionandmomentumoftheparticle
simultaneouslyatanypointintime.However,theequationscanbefurthergeneralizedtothenbeextendedto
applytoquantummechanicsaswellastoclassicalmechanics,throughthedeformationofthePoissonalgebra
overpandqtothealgebraofMoyalbrackets.

Specifically,themoregeneralformoftheHamilton'sequationreads

wherefissomefunctionofpandq,andHistheHamiltonian.TofindouttherulesforevaluatingaPoisson
bracketwithoutresortingtodifferentialequations,seeLiealgebraaPoissonbracketisthenamefortheLie
bracketinaPoissonalgebra.ThesePoissonbracketscanthenbeextendedtoMoyalbracketscomportingtoan
inequivalentLiealgebra,asprovenbyH.Groenewold,andtherebydescribequantummechanicaldiffusionin
phasespace(SeethephasespaceformulationandtheWignerWeyltransform).Thismorealgebraicapproach
notonlypermitsultimatelyextendingprobabilitydistributionsinphasespacetoWignerquasiprobability
distributions,but,atthemerePoissonbracketclassicalsetting,alsoprovidesmorepowerinhelpinganalyzethe
relevantconservedquantitiesinasystem.

Mathematicalformalism
AnysmoothrealvaluedfunctionHonasymplecticmanifoldcanbeusedtodefineaHamiltoniansystem.The
functionHisknownastheHamiltonianortheenergyfunction.Thesymplecticmanifoldisthencalledthe
phasespace.TheHamiltonianinducesaspecialvectorfieldonthesymplecticmanifold,knownasthe
Hamiltonianvectorfield.

TheHamiltonianvectorfield(aspecialtypeofsymplecticvectorfield)inducesaHamiltonianflowonthe
manifold.Thisisaoneparameterfamilyoftransformationsofthemanifold(theparameterofthecurvesis
commonlycalledthetime)inotherwordsanisotopyofsymplectomorphisms,startingwiththeidentity.By
Liouville'stheorem,eachsymplectomorphismpreservesthevolumeformonthephasespace.Thecollectionof
symplectomorphismsinducedbytheHamiltonianflowiscommonlycalledtheHamiltonianmechanicsofthe
Hamiltoniansystem.

ThesymplecticstructureinducesaPoissonbracket.ThePoissonbracketgivesthespaceoffunctionsonthe
manifoldthestructureofaLiealgebra.

Givenafunctionf

Ifwehaveaprobabilitydistribution,,then(sincethephasespacevelocity( )haszerodivergence,and
probabilityisconserved)itsconvectivederivativecanbeshowntobezeroandso

ThisiscalledLiouville'stheorem.EverysmoothfunctionGoverthesymplecticmanifoldgeneratesaone
parameterfamilyofsymplectomorphismsandif{G,H}=0,thenGisconservedandthe
symplectomorphismsaresymmetrytransformations.

AHamiltonianmayhavemultipleconservedquantitiesGi.Ifthesymplecticmanifoldhasdimension2nand
therearenfunctionallyindependentconservedquantitiesGiwhichareininvolution(i.e.,{Gi,Gj}=0),then
theHamiltonianisLiouvilleintegrable.TheLiouvilleArnoldtheoremsaysthatlocally,anyLiouville
integrableHamiltoniancanbetransformedviaasymplectomorphisminanewHamiltonianwiththeconserved
quantitiesGiascoordinatesthenewcoordinatesarecalledactionanglecoordinates.Thetransformed
HamiltoniandependsonlyontheGi,andhencetheequationsofmotionhavethesimpleform

forsomefunctionF(Arnol'detal.,1988).Thereisanentirefieldfocusingonsmalldeviationsfromintegrable
systemsgovernedbytheKAMtheorem.

TheintegrabilityofHamiltonianvectorfieldsisanopenquestion.Ingeneral,Hamiltoniansystemsarechaotic
conceptsofmeasure,completeness,integrabilityandstabilityarepoorlydefined.Atthistime,thestudyof
dynamicalsystemsisprimarilyqualitative,andnotaquantitativescience.

Riemannianmanifolds
AnimportantspecialcaseconsistsofthoseHamiltoniansthatarequadraticforms,thatis,Hamiltoniansthatcan
bewrittenas

where isasmoothlyvaryinginnerproductonthefibers ,thecotangentspacetothepointqinthe

configurationspace,sometimescalledacometric.ThisHamiltonianconsistsentirelyofthekineticterm.

IfoneconsidersaRiemannianmanifoldorapseudoRiemannianmanifold,theRiemannianmetricinducesa
linearisomorphismbetweenthetangentandcotangentbundles.(SeeMusicalisomorphism).Usingthis
isomorphism,onecandefineacometric.(Incoordinates,thematrixdefiningthecometricistheinverseofthe
matrixdefiningthemetric.)ThesolutionstotheHamiltonJacobiequationsforthisHamiltonianarethenthe
sameasthegeodesicsonthemanifold.Inparticular,theHamiltonianflowinthiscaseisthesamethingasthe
geodesicflow.Theexistenceofsuchsolutions,andthecompletenessofthesetofsolutions,arediscussedin
detailinthearticleongeodesics.SeealsoGeodesicsasHamiltonianflows.

SubRiemannianmanifolds
Whenthecometricisdegenerate,thenitisnotinvertible.Inthiscase,onedoesnothaveaRiemannian
manifold,asonedoesnothaveametric.However,theHamiltonianstillexists.Inthecasewherethecometricis
degenerateateverypointqoftheconfigurationspacemanifoldQ,sothattherankofthecometricislessthan
thedimensionofthemanifoldQ,onehasasubRiemannianmanifold.

TheHamiltonianinthiscaseisknownasasubRiemannianHamiltonian.EverysuchHamiltonianuniquely
determinesthecometric,andviceversa.ThisimpliesthateverysubRiemannianmanifoldisuniquely
determinedbyitssubRiemannianHamiltonian,andthattheconverseistrue:everysubRiemannianmanifold
hasauniquesubRiemannianHamiltonian.TheexistenceofsubRiemanniangeodesicsisgivenbytheChow
Rashevskiitheorem.

Thecontinuous,realvaluedHeisenberggroupprovidesasimpleexampleofasubRiemannianmanifold.For
theHeisenberggroup,theHamiltonianisgivenby

isnotinvolvedintheHamiltonian.

Poissonalgebras
Hamiltoniansystemscanbegeneralizedinvariousways.Insteadofsimplylookingatthealgebraofsmooth
functionsoverasymplecticmanifold,Hamiltonianmechanicscanbeformulatedongeneralcommutativeunital
realPoissonalgebras.AstateisacontinuouslinearfunctionalonthePoissonalgebra(equippedwithsome
suitabletopology)suchthatforanyelementAofthealgebra,Amapstoanonnegativerealnumber.

AfurthergeneralizationisgivenbyNambudynamics.

Chargedparticleinanelectromagneticfield
AgoodillustrationofHamiltonianmechanicsisgivenbytheHamiltonianofachargedparticleinan
electromagneticfield.InCartesiancoordinates(i.e. ),theLagrangianofanonrelativisticclassical
particleinanelectromagneticfieldis(inSIUnits):
whereeistheelectricchargeoftheparticle(notnecessarilytheelementarycharge), istheelectricscalar
potential,andthe arethecomponentsofthemagneticvectorpotential(thesemaybemodifiedthrougha
gaugetransformation).Thisiscalledminimalcoupling.

Thegeneralizedmomentaaregivenby:

Rearranging,thevelocitiesareexpressedintermsofthemomenta:

Ifwesubstitutethedefinitionofthemomenta,andthedefinitionsofthevelocitiesintermsofthemomenta,
intothedefinitionoftheHamiltoniangivenabove,andthensimplifyandrearrange,weget:

Thisequationisusedfrequentlyinquantummechanics.

Relativisticchargedparticleinanelectromagneticfield
TheLagrangianforarelativisticchargedparticleisgivenby:

Thustheparticle'scanonical(total)momentumis

thatis,thesumofthekineticmomentumandthepotentialmomentum.

Solvingforthevelocity,weget

SotheHamiltonianis

Fromthiswegettheforceequation(equivalenttotheEulerLagrangeequation)
fromwhichonecanderive

AnequivalentexpressionfortheHamiltonianasfunctionoftherelativistic(kinetic)momentum,
is

Thishastheadvantagethat canbemeasuredexperimentallywhereas cannot.NoticethattheHamiltonian

(totalenergy)canbeviewedasthesumoftherelativisticenergy(kinetic+rest), plusthepotential
energy,

Seealso
Canonicaltransformation
Classicalfieldtheory
Hamiltonianfieldtheory
CovariantHamiltonianfieldtheory
Classicalmechanics
Dynamicalsystemstheory
HamiltonJacobiequation
HamiltonJacobiEinsteinequation
Lagrangianmechanics
Maxwell'sequations
Hamiltonian(quantummechanics)
QuantumHamilton'sequations
Quantumfieldtheory
Hamiltonianoptics
DeDonderWeyltheory
Geometricmechanics
Routhianmechanics
Nambumechanics
Hamiltonianfluidmechanics

References
Footnotes
1.Hand,L.N.Finch,J.D.(2008).AnalyticalMechanics.CambridgeUniversityPress.ISBN9780521575720.
2.Goldstein,HerbertPoole,CharlesP.,Jr.Safko,JohnL.(2002),ClassicalMechanics(3rded.),SanFrancisco,CA:
AddisonWesley,pp.347349,ISBN0201657023
3."16.3TheHamiltonian",MITOpenCourseWarewebsite18.013A,retrievedFebruary2007Checkdatevaluesin:
|accessdate=(help)
4.ThisderivationisalongthelinesasgiveninArnol'd1989,pp.6566
Sources

Arnol'd,V.I.(1989),MathematicalMethodsofClassicalMechanics,SpringerVerlag,ISBN0387
968903
Abraham,R.Marsden,J.E.(1978),FoundationsofMechanics,London:BenjaminCummings,ISBN0
80530102X
Arnol'd,V.I.Kozlov,V.V.Neshtadt,A.I.(1988),Mathematicalaspectsofclassicalandcelestial
mechanics,3,SpringerVerlag
Vinogradov,A.M.Kupershmidt,B.A.(1981),ThestructureofHamiltonianmechanics(DjVu),London
Math.Soc.Lect.NotesSer.,60,London:CambridgeUniv.Press

Externallinks
Binney,JamesJ.,ClassicalMechanics(lecturenotes)(PDF),UniversityofOxford,retrieved27October
2010
Tong,David,ClassicalDynamics(Cambridgelecturenotes),UniversityofCambridge,retrieved
27October2010
Hamilton,WilliamRowan,OnaGeneralMethodinDynamics,TrinityCollegeDublin

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