Homogenous Lagrangian systems

Abstract

The application of the Legendre transformation to a hyperregular Lagrangian system results in a Hamiltonian vector field generated by a Hamiltonian defined on the phase space of the mechanical system. The Legendre transformation in its usual interpretation can not be applied to homogeneous Lagrangians found in relativistic mechanics. The dynamics of relativistic systems must be formulated in terms of implicit differential equations in the phase space and not in terms of Hamiltonian vector fields. The constrained Hamiltonian systems introduced by Dirac [1] are not general enough to cover some important cases. We formulate a geometric framework which permits Lagrangian and Hamiltonian descriptions of the dynamics of a wide class of mechanical systems. Lagrangians and Hamiltonians are presented as families of functions. The Legendre transformation and the inverse Legendre transformation are described as transitions between these families. Two examples, the dynamics of a relativistic particle and a space-time formulation of geometric optics (relativistic massless particle), are given.