Book Description

Dynamical Systems and Microphysics: Geometry and Mechanics contains the proceedings of the Second International Seminar on Mathematical Theory of Dynamical Systems and Microphysics held at the International Center for Mechanical Sciences in Udine, Italy on September 1-11, 1981. Contributors explore the geometry and mechanics of dynamical systems and microphysics and cover topics ranging from Lagrangian submanifolds and optimal control theory to Hamiltonian mechanics, linear dynamical systems, and the quantum theory of measurement. This volume is organized into six sections encompassing 30 chapters and begins with an introduction to geometric structures, mechanics, and general relativity. It considers an approach to quantum mechanics through deformation of the symplectic structure, giving a striking insight into the correspondence principle. The chapters that follow focus on the gauge invariance of the Einstein field, group treatment of the space of orbits in the Kepler problem, and stable configurations in nonlinear problems arising from physics. This book is intended for researchers and graduate students in theoretical physics, mechanics, control and system theory, and mathematics. It will also be profitably read by philosophers of science and, to some extent, by persons who have a keen interest in basic questions of contemporary mechanics and physics and some background in the physical and mathematical sciences.