Geometry And Topology In Hamiltonian Dynamics And Statistical Mechanics

This book covers a new explanation of the origin of Hamiltonian chaos and its quantitative characterization. The author focuses on two main areas: Riemannian formulation of Hamiltonian dynamics, providing an original viewpoint about the relationship between geodesic instability and curvature properties of the mechanical manifolds; and a topological theory of thermodynamic phase transitions, relating topology changes of microscopic configuration space with the generation of singularities of thermodynamic observables. The book contains numerous illustrations throughout and it will interest both mathematicians and physicists.

Although contact geometry and topology is briefly discussed in V I Arnol'd's book “Mathematical Methods of Classical Mechanics ”(Springer-Verlag, 1989, 2nd edition), it still remains a domain of research in pure mathematics, e.g. see the recent monograph by H Geiges “An Introduction to Contact Topology” (Cambridge U Press, 2008). Some attempts to use contact geometry in physics were made in the monograph “Contact Geometry and Nonlinear Differential Equations” (Cambridge U Press, 2007). Unfortunately, even the excellent style of this monograph is not sufficient to attract the attention of the physics community to this type of problem. This book is the first serious attempt to change the existing status quo. In it we demonstrate that, in fact, all branches of theoretical physics can be rewritten in the language of contact geometry and topology: from mechanics, thermodynamics and electrodynamics to optics, gauge fields and gravity; from physics of liquid crystals to quantum mechanics and quantum computers, etc. The book is written in the style of famous Landau–Lifshitz (L–L) multivolume course in theoretical physics. This means that its readers are expected to have solid background in theoretical physics (at least at the level of the L–L course). No prior knowledge of specialized mathematics is required. All needed new mathematics is given in the context of discussed physical problems. As in the L–L course some problems/exercises are formulated along the way and, again as in the L–L course, these are always supplemented by either solutions or by hints (with exact references). Unlike the L–L course, though, some definitions, theorems, and remarks are also presented. This is done with the purpose of stimulating the interest of our readers in deeper study of subject matters discussed in the text.

The papers in this volume are an outgrowth of the lectures and informal discussions that took place during the workshop on "The Geometry of Hamiltonian Systems" which was held at MSRl from June 5 to 16, 1989. It was, in some sense, the last major event of the year-long program on Symplectic Geometry and Mechanics. The emphasis of all the talks was on Hamiltonian dynamics and its relationship to several aspects of symplectic geometry and topology, mechanics, and dynamical systems in general. The organizers of the conference were R. Devaney (co-chairman), H. Flaschka (co-chairman), K. Meyer, and T. Ratiu. The entire meeting was built around two mini-courses of five lectures each and a series of two expository lectures. The first of the mini-courses was given by A. T. Fomenko, who presented the work of his group at Moscow University on the classification of integrable systems. The second mini course was given by J. Marsden of UC Berkeley, who spoke about several applications of symplectic and Poisson reduction to problems in stability, normal forms, and symmetric Hamiltonian bifurcation theory. Finally, the two expository talks were given by A. Fathi of the University of Florida who concentrated on the links between symplectic geometry, dynamical systems, and Teichmiiller theory.

This is both a textbook and a monograph. It is partially based on a two-semester course, held by the author for third-year students in physics and mathematics at the University of Salerno, on analytical mechanics, differential geometry, symplectic manifolds and integrable systems. As a textbook, it provides a systematic and self-consistent formulation of Hamiltonian dynamics both in a rigorous coordinate language and in the modern language of differential geometry. It also presents powerful mathematical methods of theoretical physics, especially in gauge theories and general relativity. As a monograph, the book deals with the advanced research topic of completely integrable dynamics, with both finitely and infinitely many degrees of freedom, including geometrical structures of solitonic wave equations. Contents: Analytical Mechanics: The Lagrangian Coordinates; Hamiltonian Systems; Transformation Theory; The Integration Methods; Basic Ideas of Differential Geometry: Manifolds and Tangent Spaces; Differential Forms; Integration Theory; Lie Groups and Lie Algebras; Geometry and Physics: Symplectic Manifolds and Hamiltonian Systems; The Orbits Method; Classical Electrodynamics; Integrable Field Theories: KdV Equation; General Structures; Meaning and Existence of Recursion Operators; Miscellanea; Integrability of Fermionic Dynamics. Readership: Physicists and mathematicians.

John Hornstein has written about the author's theorem on nonintegrability of geodesic flows on closed surfaces of genus greater than one: "Here is an example of how differential geometry, differential and algebraic topology, and Newton's laws make music together" (Amer. Math. Monthly, November 1989). Kozlov's book is a systematic introduction to the problem of exact integration of equations of dynamics. The key to the solution is to find nontrivial symmetries of Hamiltonian systems. After Poincaré's work it became clear that topological considerations and the analysis of resonance phenomena play a crucial role in the problem on the existence of symmetry fields and nontrivial conservation laws.

This book provides an accessible introduction to the variational formulation of Lagrangian and Hamiltonian mechanics, with a novel emphasis on global descriptions of the dynamics, which is a significant conceptual departure from more traditional approaches based on the use of local coordinates on the configuration manifold. In particular, we introduce a general methodology for obtaining globally valid equations of motion on configuration manifolds that are Lie groups, homogeneous spaces, and embedded manifolds, thereby avoiding the difficulties associated with coordinate singularities. The material is presented in an approachable fashion by considering concrete configuration manifolds of increasing complexity, which then motivates and naturally leads to the more general formulation that follows. Understanding of the material is enhanced by numerous in-depth examples throughout the book, culminating in non-trivial applications involving multi-body systems. This book is written for a general audience of mathematicians, engineers, and physicists with a basic knowledge of mechanics. Some basic background in differential geometry is helpful, but not essential, as the relevant concepts are introduced in the book, thereby making the material accessible to a broad audience, and suitable for either self-study or as the basis for a graduate course in applied mathematics, engineering, or physics.

This book, along with its companion volume, Nonlinear Dynamics New Directions: Theoretical Aspects, covers topics ranging from fractal analysis to very specific applications of the theory of dynamical systems to biology. This second volume contains mostly new applications of the theory of dynamical systems to both engineering and biology. The first volume is devoted to fundamental aspects and includes a number of important new contributions as well as some review articles that emphasize new development prospects. The topics addressed in the two volumes include a rigorous treatment of fluctuations in dynamical systems, topics in fractal analysis, studies of the transient dynamics in biological networks, synchronization in lasers, and control of chaotic systems, among others. This book also: · Develops applications of nonlinear dynamics on a diversity of topics such as patterns of synchrony in neuronal networks, laser synchronization, control of chaotic systems, and the study of transient dynamics in biological · Includes a study of self-organized regularity in long-range systems · Explains use of Levenstein's distance for measuring lexical evolution rates

In addition to explaining and modeling unexplored phenomena in nature and society, chaos uses vital parts of nonlinear dynamical systems theory and established chaotic theory to open new frontiers and fields of study. Handbook of Applications of Chaos Theory covers the main parts of chaos theory along with various applications to diverse areas. Expert contributors from around the world show how chaos theory is used to model unexplored cases and stimulate new applications. Accessible to scientists, engineers, and practitioners in a variety of fields, the book discusses the intermittency route to chaos, evolutionary dynamics and deterministic chaos, and the transition to phase synchronization chaos. It presents important contributions on strange attractors, self-exciting and hidden attractors, stability theory, Lyapunov exponents, and chaotic analysis. It explores the state of the art of chaos in plasma physics, plasma harmonics, and overtone coupling. It also describes flows and turbulence, chaotic interference versus decoherence, and an application of microwave networks to the simulation of quantum graphs. The book proceeds to give a detailed presentation of the chaotic, rogue, and noisy optical dissipative solitons; parhelic-like circle and chaotic light scattering; and interesting forms of the hyperbolic prism, the Poincaré disc, and foams. It also covers numerous application areas, from the analysis of blood pressure data and clinical digital pathology to chaotic pattern recognition to economics to musical arts and research.