The Stäckel theorem in the Lagrangian formalism and the use of local times

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.31349/RevMexFis.67.447

Keywords:

Stäckel's theorem, Lagrangian formulation, fictitious time.

Abstract

We show that the conditions for the separability of the Hamilton-Jacobi equation given by the Stäckel theorem imply that, making use of the elementary Lagrangian formalism, one can find $n$ functionally independent constants of motion, where $n$ is the number of degrees of freedom. We also show that this result can be linked to the fact that the Lagrangian for a system of this class is related to the sum of $n$ one-dimensional Lagrangians, if one makes use of multiple local times.

References

L.A. Pars, {it A Treatise on Analytical Dynamics} (Wiley, New York, 1965; reprinted by Ox Bow Press, 1979). doi.org/10.2307/3612016

D.T. Greenwood, {it Classical Dynamics} (Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1977; reprinted by Dover, 1997).

H. Goldstein, {it Classical Mechanics}, 2nd ed. (Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA, 1980).

A.M. Perelomov, {it Integrable Systems of Classical Mechanics and Lie Algebras}, Vol. I (Birkh"auser, Basel, 1990). doi.org/10.1007/978-3-0348-9257-5

G.F. Torres del Castillo, The use of fictitious time in Lagrangian mechanics, {it Rev. Mex. F'is. E} (submitted).

G.F. Torres del Castillo, {it An Introduction to Hamiltonian Mechanics} (Springer, Cham, 2018). doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-95225-3

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Published

2021-05-01

How to Cite

[1]
G. F. Torres del Castillo, “The Stäckel theorem in the Lagrangian formalism and the use of local times”, Rev. Mex. Fís., vol. 67, no. 3 May-Jun, pp. 447–451, May 2021.

Issue

Section

07 Gravitation, Mathematical Physics and Field Theory