This book offers an explicitly covariant canonical formalism that is devised in the usual mathematical language of standard textbooks on classical dynamics. It elaborates on important questions: How do we convert the entire canonical formalism of Lagrange and Hamilton that are built upon Newton's concept of an absolute time into a relativistically correct form that is appropriate to our present knowledge? How do we treat the space-time variables in a Hamiltonian Field Theory on equal footing as in the Lagrangian description of field theory without introducing a new mathematical language? How can a closed covariant canonical gauge theory be obtained from it? To answer the last question, the theory of homogenous and inhomogeneous gauge transformations is worked out in this book on the basis of the canonical transformation theory for fields elaborated before. In analogy to the treatment of time in relativistic point mechanics, the canonical formalism in field theory is further extended to a space-time that is no longer fixed but is also treated as a canonical variable. Applied to a generalized theory of gauge transformations, this opens the door to a new approach to general relativity.

In the framework of the geometric formulation of field theory, classical fields are represented by sections of fibred manifolds, and their dynamics is phrased in jet manifold terms. The Hamiltonian formalism in fibred manifolds is the multisymplectic generalization of the Hamiltonian formalism in mechanics when canonical momenta correspond to derivatives of fields with respect to all world coordinates, not only to time. This book is devoted to the application of this formalism to fundamental field models including gauge theory, gravitation theory, and spontaneous symmetry breaking. All these models are constraint ones. Their Euler-Lagrange equations are underdetermined and need additional conditions. In the Hamiltonian formalism, these conditions appear automatically as a part of the Hamilton equations, corresponding to different Hamiltonian forms associated with a degenerate Lagrangian density. The general procedure for describing constraint systems with quadratic and affine Lagrangian densities is presented.

An Introduction to Quantum Field Theory is a textbook intended for the graduate physics course covering relativistic quantum mechanics, quantum electrodynamics, and Feynman diagrams. The authors make these subjects accessible through carefully worked examples illustrating the technical aspects of the subject, and intuitive explanations of what is going on behind the mathematics. After presenting the basics of quantum electrodynamics, the authors discuss the theory of renormalization and its relation to statistical mechanics, and introduce the renormalization group. This discussion sets the stage for a discussion of the physical principles that underlie the fundamental interactions of elementary particle physics and their description by gauge field theories.

The aim of this work is to bridge the gap between the well-known Newtonian mechanics and the studies on chaos, ordinarily reserved to experts. Several topics are treated: Lagrangian, Hamiltonian and Jacobi formalisms, studies of integrable and quasi-integrable systems. The chapter devoted to chaos also enables a simple presentation of the KAM theorem. All the important notions are recalled in summaries of the lectures. They are illustrated by many original problems, stemming from real-life situations, the solutions of which are worked out in great detail for the benefit of the reader. This book will be of interest to undergraduate students as well as others whose work involves mechanics, physics and engineering in general.

An Introduction to Lagrangian Mechanics begins with a proper historical perspective on the Lagrangian method by presenting Fermat's Principle of Least Time (as an introduction to the Calculus of Variations) as well as the principles of Maupertuis, Jacobi, and d'Alembert that preceded Hamilton's formulation of the Principle of Least Action, from which the Euler-Lagrange equations of motion are derived. Other additional topics not traditionally presented in undergraduate textbooks include the treatment of constraint forces in Lagrangian Mechanics; Routh's procedure for Lagrangian systems with symmetries; the art of numerical analysis for physical systems; variational formulations for several continuous Lagrangian systems; an introduction to elliptic functions with applications in Classical Mechanics; and Noncanonical Hamiltonian Mechanics and perturbation theory.The Second Edition includes a larger selection of examples and problems (with hints) in each chapter and continues the strong emphasis of the First Edition on the development and application of mathematical methods (mostly calculus) to the solution of problems in Classical Mechanics.New material has been added to most chapters. For example, a new derivation of the Noether theorem for discrete Lagrangian systems is given and a modified Rutherford scattering problem is solved exactly to show that the total scattering cross section associated with a confined potential (i.e., which vanishes beyond a certain radius) yields the hard-sphere result. The Frenet-Serret formulas for the Coriolis-corrected projectile motion are presented, where the Frenet-Serret torsion is shown to be directly related to the Coriolis deflection, and a new treatment of the sleeping-top problem is given.

This book is an introduction to the field of constrained Hamiltonian systems and their quantization, a topic which is of central interest to theoretical physicists who wish to obtain a deeper understanding of the quantization of gauge theories, such as describing the fundamental interactions in nature. Beginning with the early work of Dirac, the book covers the main developments in the field up to more recent topics, such as the field?antifield formalism of Batalin and Vilkovisky, including a short discussion of how gauge anomalies may be incorporated into this formalism. All topics are well illustrated with examples emphasizing points of central interest. The book should enable graduate students to follow the literature on this subject without much problems, and to perform research in this field.

A concise treatment of variational techniques, focussing on Lagrangian and Hamiltonian systems, ideal for physics, engineering and mathematics students.