Reduction by symmetries of contact mechanical systems on Lie groups

Abstract

We study the dynamics of contact mechanical systems on Lie groups that are invariant under a Lie group action. Analogously to standard mechanical systems on Lie groups, existing symmetries allow for reducing the number of equations. Thus, we obtain Euler-Poincar\'e-Herglotz equations on the extended reduced phase space $\mathfrak{g}\times \R$ associated with the extended phase space $TG\times \R$, where the configuration manifold $G$ is a Lie group and $\mathfrak{g}$ its Lie algebra. Furthermore, we obtain the Hamiltonian counterpart of these equations by studying the underlying Jacobi structure. Finally, we extend the reduction process to the case of symmetry-breaking systems which are invariant under a Lie subgroup of symmetries.