The Principle of Least Action

The Principle of Least Action
Title The Principle of Least Action PDF eBook
Author Alberto G. Rojo
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Pages 269
Release 2018-03-29
Genre Mathematics
ISBN 0521869021

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This text brings history and the key fields of physics together to present a unique technical discussion of the principles of least action.

The Feynman lectures on physics: Mainly electromagnetism and matter

The Feynman lectures on physics: Mainly electromagnetism and matter
Title The Feynman lectures on physics: Mainly electromagnetism and matter PDF eBook
Author
Publisher
Pages
Release 1965
Genre Electromagnetism
ISBN 9780201021165

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The Principle of Least Action in Geometry and Dynamics

The Principle of Least Action in Geometry and Dynamics
Title The Principle of Least Action in Geometry and Dynamics PDF eBook
Author Karl Friedrich Siburg
Publisher Springer Science & Business Media
Pages 148
Release 2004-05-17
Genre Computers
ISBN 9783540219446

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New variational methods by Aubry, Mather, and Mane, discovered in the last twenty years, gave deep insight into the dynamics of convex Lagrangian systems. This book shows how this Principle of Least Action appears in a variety of settings (billiards, length spectrum, Hofer geometry, modern symplectic geometry). Thus, topics from modern dynamical systems and modern symplectic geometry are linked in a new and sometimes surprising way. The central object is Mather’s minimal action functional. The level is for graduate students onwards, but also for researchers in any of the subjects touched in the book.

The Lazy Universe

The Lazy Universe
Title The Lazy Universe PDF eBook
Author Jennifer Coopersmith
Publisher Oxford University Press
Pages 272
Release 2017-04-28
Genre Science
ISBN 0191060720

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This is a rare book on a rare topic: it is about 'action' and the Principle of Least Action. A surprisingly well-kept secret, these ideas are at the heart of physical science and engineering. Physics is well known as being concerned with grand conservatory principles (e.g. the conservation of energy) but equally important is the optimization principle (such as getting somewhere in the shortest time or with the least resistance). The book explains: why an optimization principle underlies physics, what action is, what `the Hamiltonian' is, and how new insights into energy, space, and time arise. It assumes some background in the physical sciences, at the level of undergraduate science, but it is not a textbook. The requisite derivations and worked examples are given but may be skim-read if desired. The author draws from Cornelius Lanczos's book "The Variational Principles of Mechanics" (1949 and 1970). Lanczos was a brilliant mathematician and educator, but his book was for a postgraduate audience. The present book is no mere copy with the difficult bits left out - it is original, and a popularization. It aims to explain ideas rather than achieve technical competence, and to show how Least Action leads into the whole of physics.

Feynman's Thesis

Feynman's Thesis
Title Feynman's Thesis PDF eBook
Author Richard Phillips Feynman
Publisher World Scientific
Pages 142
Release 2005
Genre Science
ISBN 9812563660

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Richard Feynman's never previously published doctoral thesis formed the heart of much of his brilliant and profound work in theoretical physics. Entitled ?The Principle of Least Action in Quantum Mechanics," its original motive was to quantize the classical action-at-a-distance electrodynamics. Because that theory adopted an overall space?time viewpoint, the classical Hamiltonian approach used in the conventional formulations of quantum theory could not be used, so Feynman turned to the Lagrangian function and the principle of least action as his points of departure.The result was the path integral approach, which satisfied ? and transcended ? its original motivation, and has enjoyed great success in renormalized quantum field theory, including the derivation of the ubiquitous Feynman diagrams for elementary particles. Path integrals have many other applications, including atomic, molecular, and nuclear scattering, statistical mechanics, quantum liquids and solids, Brownian motion, and noise theory. It also sheds new light on fundamental issues like the interpretation of quantum theory because of its new overall space?time viewpoint.The present volume includes Feynman's Princeton thesis, the related review article ?Space?Time Approach to Non-Relativistic Quantum Mechanics? [Reviews of Modern Physics 20 (1948), 367?387], Paul Dirac's seminal paper ?The Lagrangian in Quantum Mechanics'' [Physikalische Zeitschrift der Sowjetunion, Band 3, Heft 1 (1933)], and an introduction by Laurie M Brown.

Variational Principles in Classical Mechanics

Variational Principles in Classical Mechanics
Title Variational Principles in Classical Mechanics PDF eBook
Author Douglas Cline
Publisher
Pages
Release 2018-08
Genre
ISBN 9780998837277

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Two dramatically different philosophical approaches to classical mechanics were proposed during the 17th - 18th centuries. Newton developed his vectorial formulation that uses time-dependent differential equations of motion to relate vector observables like force and rate of change of momentum. Euler, Lagrange, Hamilton, and Jacobi, developed powerful alternative variational formulations based on the assumption that nature follows the principle of least action. These variational formulations now play a pivotal role in science and engineering.This book introduces variational principles and their application to classical mechanics. The relative merits of the intuitive Newtonian vectorial formulation, and the more powerful variational formulations are compared. Applications to a wide variety of topics illustrate the intellectual beauty, remarkable power, and broad scope provided by use of variational principles in physics.The second edition adds discussion of the use of variational principles applied to the following topics:(1) Systems subject to initial boundary conditions(2) The hierarchy of related formulations based on action, Lagrangian, Hamiltonian, and equations of motion, to systems that involve symmetries.(3) Non-conservative systems.(4) Variable-mass systems.(5) The General Theory of Relativity.Douglas Cline is a Professor of Physics in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York.

Variational Principles in Dynamics and Quantum Theory

Variational Principles in Dynamics and Quantum Theory
Title Variational Principles in Dynamics and Quantum Theory PDF eBook
Author Wolfgang Yourgrau
Publisher Courier Corporation
Pages 222
Release 2012-04-26
Genre Science
ISBN 0486151131

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DIVHistorical, theoretical survey with many insights, much hard-to-find material. Hamilton’s principle, Hamilton-Jacobi equation, etc. /div