Dynamics of Hamiltonian Systems [chapter]

Heinz Hanßmann
2015 Encyclopedia of Complexity and Systems Science  
Hamiltonian systems are a class of dynamical systems which can be characterised by preservation of a symplectic form. This allows to write down the equations of motion in terms of a single function, the Hamiltonian function. They were conceived in the 19th century to study physical systems varying from optics to frictionless mechanics in a unified way. This description turned out to be particularly efficient for symmetry reduction and perturbation analysis.
doi:10.1007/978-3-642-27737-5_141-2 fatcat:bo3csheerfhi3f5gdp3s5t5wfi