Applications of Poisson Geometry to Physical Problems

Abstract

We consider Lagrangians in Hamilton's principle defined on the tangent space $TG$ of a Lie group $G$. Invariance of such a Lagrangian under the action of $G$ leads to the symmetry-reduced Euler-Lagrange equations called the Euler-Poincaré equations. In this case, the invariant Lagrangian is defined on the Lie algebra of the group and its Euler-Poincaré equations are defined on the dual Lie algebra, where dual is defined by the operation of taking variational derivative. On the Hamiltonian side, the Euler-Poincaré equations are Lie-Poisson and they possess accompanying momentum maps, which encode both their conservation laws and the geometry of their solution space. The standard Euler-Poincaré examples are treated, including particle dynamics, the rigid body, the heavy top and geodesic motion on Lie groups. Additional topics deal with Fermat's principle, the $\mathbb{R}^3$ Poisson bracket, polarized optical traveling waves, deformable bodies (Riemann ellipsoids) and shallow water waves, including the integrable shallow water wave systems associated with geodesic motion on the diffeomorphisms. The lectures end with the semidirect-product Euler-Poincaré reduction theorem for ideal fluid dynamics. This theorem introduces the Euler--Poincaré variational principle for incompressible and compressible motions of ideal fluids, with applications to geophysical fluids. It also leads to their Lie-Poisson Hamiltonian formulation.

139 pages; no figures. Submitted to the Proceedings of the Summer School and Conference on Poisson Geometry, 4-22 July 2005, Trieste, Italy