In this class we will cover fundamental aspects of Lagrangian and Hamiltonian mechanics, and their relationship to symplectic manifolds.
Schedule
Fridays, 17:05–18:40, Teaching Building 6, Room A305.
Syllabus
- Variational principles
- Lagrangian mechanics
- Conservation laws
- Hamiltonian mechanics
- Canonical transformations
- Action-angle variables
- The Hamilton-Jacobi equation
- Differential forms
- Symplectic manifolds
Reference material
We will follow David Tong's lecture notes on Classical Dynamics supplemented by Goldstein's Classical Mechanics and Arnold's Mathematical Methods of Classical Mechanics.