Normal shift in general Lagrangian dynamics

Abstract

It is well known that Lagrangian dynamical systems naturally arise in describing wave front dynamics in the limit of short waves (which is called pseudoclassical limit or limit of geometrical optics). Wave fronts are the surfaces of constant phase, their points move along lines which are called rays. In non-homogeneous anisotropic media rays are not straight lines. Their shape is determined by modified Lagrange equations. An important observation is that for most usual cases propagating wave fronts are perpendicular to rays in the sense of some Riemannian metric. This happens when Lagrange function is quadratic with respect to components of velocity vector. The goal of paper is to study how this property transforms for the case of general (non-quadratic) Lagrange function.