Generalized Hamilton-Jacobi equations for nonholonomic dynamics.pdfVIP

4 Generalized Hamilton-Jacobi equations for 0 0 nonholonomic dynamics 2 n u J 4 Michele Pavon 1 Dipartimento di Matematica Pura e Applicata v 8 0 Universit`a of Padova 0 6 0 via Belzoni 7, 35131 Padova 4 0 and ISIB-CNR, Italy / h p- pavon@math.unipd.it h t a February 7, 2008 m : v i X Abstract r a Employing a suitable nonlinear Lagrange functional, we derive gen- eralized Hamilton-Jacobi equations for dynamical systems subject to linear velocity constraints. As long as a solution of the generalized Hamilton-Jacobi equation exists, the action is actually minimized (not just extremized). PACS numbers: 45.20.Jj, 45.10.Db Running Title: Nonholonomic dynamics 1 Keywords: Nonholonomic systems, Hamilton-Jacobi equation, Hamilton’s principle 1 Introduction Consider a mechanical system with configuration space Rn . Let L be the Lagrangian, and suppose that the system is subject to k n nonholonomic constraints of the form ω (x(t))T x˙ (t) = 0, i = 1, 2, . . . , k, t ∈ [t , t ], (1.1) i 0 1 where the ωi : Rn → Rn are smooth functions and T denotes transpose. Let Ω(x) be the k × n matrix whose ith row is ω (x)T . Then, an application of i d’Alembert’s principle, together with the method