ENGLISH

Symplectic Techniques in Physics

By Victor Guillemin , Shlomo Sternberg

Book information

Publisher
Cambridge University Press
Year
1984
ISBN
9780521248662, 0521248663, 0521389909
LCC
QC20.7.D52
Open Library ID
OL21495413M
Language
english
Format
DJVU
Filesize
5 MB (4907856 bytes)
Edition
First Edition
Pages
478\478
Topic
Physics
Time added
2010-02-18 13:16:04

Description

Symplectic geometry is very useful for formulating clearly and concisely problems in classical physics and also for understanding the link between classical problems and their quantum counterparts. It is thus a subject of interest to both mathematicians and physicists, though they have approached the subject from different viewpoints. This is the first book that attempts to reconcile these approaches. The authors use the uncluttered, coordinate-free approach to symplectic geometry and classical mechanics that has been developed by mathematicians over the course of the past thirty years, but at the same time apply the apparatus to a great number of concrete problems. Some of the themes emphasized in the book include the pivotal role of completely integrable systems, the importance of symmetries, analogies between classical dynamics and optics, the importance of symplectic tools in classical variational theory, symplectic features of classical field theories, and the principle of general covariance.

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