New approach to nonrelativistic ideal magnetohydrodynamics

Abstract

We provide a novel action principle for nonrelativistic ideal magnetohydrodynamics in the Eulerian scheme exploiting a Clebsch-type parametrisation. Both Lagrangian and Hamiltonian formulations have been considered. Within the Hamiltonian framework, two complementary approaches have been discussed using Dirac's constraint analysis. In one case the Hamiltonian is canonical involving only physical variables but the brackets have a noncanonical structure, while the other retains the canonical structure of brackets by enlarging the phase space. The special case of incompressible magnetohydrodynamics is also considered where, again, both the approaches are discussed in the Hamiltonian framework. The conservation of the stress tensor reveals interesting aspects of the theory.