JetCalculus[EulerLagrange] - calculate the Euler-Lagrange equations for a Lagrangian
Calling Sequences
EulerLagrange(L)
EulerLagrange( )
EulerLagrange()
Parameters
L - a function on a jet space defining the Lagrange function for a variational problem (single or multiple integral)
- a differential bi-form on a jet space defining the Lagrangian form for a variational problem (single or multiple integral)
- a differential bi-form of vertical degree > 0
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Description
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Let be a fiber bundle, with base dimension and fiber dimension and let be the -th jet bundle. Introduce local coordinates , ..., where, as usual, if is a section andis the -jet of then
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and dim.
A function on defines the action integral or fundamental integral,
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for a -th order multiple integral problem in the calculus of variations. The Euler-Lagrange equations are the system of , order partial differential equations for the extremals of the action integral . The general formula for the components of the Euler-Lagrange operator are
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where is the total derivative with respect to . In the special case of a single integral variational problem, this formula can be written as
while for a double integral problem, we have
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See Gelfand and Fomin for an excellent introduction to the calculus of variations.
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For the first calling sequence, EulerLagrange(L) returns the list of functions on .
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The differential forms on the jet spaces can be bi-graded by their horizontal and vertical/contact degree. A differential form of horizontal degree and vertical degree 0 is called a Lagrangian form or Lagrangian bi-form. In terms of local coordinates on , a Lagrangian bi-form can be expressed as
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, ..., .
The associated Euler-Lagrange form is a differential bi-form of horizontal degree and vertical degree . It is defined in terms of the usual Euler-Lagrange expressions by
where
For geometrical aspects of the calculus of variations, the representation of the Euler-Lagrange equations as the components of a differential bi-form is very useful.
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The third calling sequence EulerLagrange() returns a list of differential bi-forms of vertical degree 1 less than the vertical degree of . Here the partial derivatives with respect to the jets of dependent variables in the usual formula for the Euler-Lagrange operator acting on functions are replaced by interior products of the corresponding vector fields, that is,
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where denotes the interior product with the vector field
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The command EulerLagrange is part of the DifferentialGeometry:-JetCalculus package. It can be used in the form EulerLagrange(...) only after executing the commands with(DifferentialGeometry) and with(JetCalculus), but can always be used by executing DifferentialGeometry:-JetCalculus:-EulerLagrange(...).
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Examples
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Example 1.
Create a space of 1 independent variable and 3 dependent variables.
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Define the standard Lagrangian from mechanics as the difference between the kinetic and potential energy.
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Calculate the Euler-Lagrange equations for .
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The convert/DGdiff command will change this output from jet space notation to standard differential equations notation.
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Here are the same calculations done with differential forms.
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Example 2.
Create a space of 1 independent variable and 1 dependent variable.
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Calculate the Euler-Lagrange equations for an arbitrary second order Lagrangian.
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Compare with the usual formula for the Euler-Lagrange expression in terms of the total derivatives (calculated using TotalDiff) of the partial derivative of L with respect to the jet coordinates .
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Here are the same calculations again using an alternative jet space notation. See Preferences for details.
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Calculate the Euler-Lagrange equations for an arbitrary second order Lagrangian.
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Example 3.
Create a space of 3 independent variables and 1 dependent variable. Derive the Laplace's equation from its variational principle.
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Repeat this computation using differential forms.
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Example 4.
Create a space of 3 independent variables and 3 dependent variables. Derive 3-dimensional Maxwell equations from the variational principle.
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Define the Lagrangian.
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Compute the Euler-Lagrange equations.
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Change notation to improve readability.
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Example 5.
In this example we apply the Euler-Lagrange operator to some contact forms. We start with the case of 1 independent variable and 1 dependent variable.
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First we try a form of vertical degree 1.
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Try a form of vertical degree 2.
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Here is the explicit formula for computing EulerLagrange(omega2).
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Now we compute some simple examples in the case of 2 independent variables and 2 dependent variables.
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Try a form of vertical degree 1.
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Try a form of vertical degree 2.
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Try a form of vertical degree 3.
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The Euler-Lagrange operator of the horizontal exterior derivative of any form vanishes, for example:
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