The revised edition of this advanced textbook provides the reader with a solid grounding in the formalism of classical mechanics, underlying a number of powerful mathematical methods that are widely used in modern theoretical and mathematical physics. It reviews the fundamentals of Lagrangian and Hamiltonian mechanics, and goes on to cover related topics such as canonical transformations, integral invariants, potential motion in geometric setting, symmetries, the Noether theorem and systems with constraints. While in some cases the formalism is developed beyond the traditional level adopted in the standard textbooks on classical mechanics, only elementary mathematical methods are used in the exposition of the material. New material for the revised edition includes additional sections on the Euler-Lagrange equation, the Cartan two-form in Lagrangian theory, and Newtonian equations of motion in context of general relativity. Also new for this edition is the inclusion of problem sets and solutions to aid in the understanding of the material presented. The mathematical constructions involved are explicitly described and explained, so the book is a good starting point for the student new to this field. Where possible, intuitive motivations are replaced by explicit proofs and direct computations, preserving the level of rigor that makes the book useful for more advanced students intending to work in one of the branches of the vast field of theoretical physics. To illustrate how classical-mechanics formalism works in other branches of theoretical physics, examples related to electrodynamics, as well as to relativistic and quantum mechanics, are included.

Formalism of classical mechanics underlies a number of powerful mathematical methods that are widely used in theoretical and mathematical physics. This book considers the basics facts of Lagrangian and Hamiltonian mechanics, as well as related topics, such as canonical transformations, integral invariants, potential motion in geometric setting, symmetries, the Noether theorem and systems with constraints. While in some cases the formalism is developed beyond the traditional level adopted in the standard textbooks on classical mechanics, only elementary mathematical methods are used in the exposition of the material. The mathematical constructions involved are explicitly described and explained, so the book can be a good starting point for the undergraduate student new to this field. At the same time and where possible, intuitive motivations are replaced by explicit proofs and direct computations, preserving the level of rigor that makes the book useful for the graduate students intending to work in one of the branches of the vast field of theoretical physics. To illustrate how classical-mechanics formalism works in other branches of theoretical physics, examples related to electrodynamics, as well as to relativistic and quantum mechanics, are included.

The revised edition of this advanced textbook provides the reader with a solid grounding in the formalism of classical mechanics, underlying a number of powerful mathematical methods that are widely used in modern theoretical and mathematical physics. It reviews the fundamentals of Lagrangian and Hamiltonian mechanics, and goes on to cover related topics such as canonical transformations, integral invariants, potential motion in geometric setting, symmetries, the Noether theorem and systems with constraints. While in some cases the formalism is developed beyond the traditional level adopted in the standard textbooks on classical mechanics, only elementary mathematical methods are used in the exposition of the material. New material for the revised edition includes additional sections on the Euler-Lagrange equation, the Cartan two-form in Lagrangian theory, and Newtonian equations of motion in context of general relativity. Also new for this edition is the inclusion of problem sets and solutions to aid in the understanding of the material presented. The mathematical constructions involved are explicitly described and explained, so the book is a good starting point for the student new to this field. Where possible, intuitive motivations are replaced by explicit proofs and direct computations, preserving the level of rigor that makes the book useful for more advanced students intending to work in one of the branches of the vast field of theoretical physics. To illustrate how classical-mechanics formalism works in other branches of theoretical physics, examples related to electrodynamics, as well as to relativistic and quantum mechanics, are included.

We construct non-relativistic and relativistic non-Grassmann spinning particles on the ground of oldest idea about spin as "intrinsic angular momentum." Spin degrees of freedom live on a fiber bundle with a base parameterized by the inner angular-momentum coordinates. In the relativistic case, configuration space of the spin degrees of freedom is anti-de Sitter space. This produces both gamma-matrices and Lorentz generators in the course of quantization. Canonical quantization of the model implies the Dirac equation. We present the detailed analysis of both the Lagrangian and the Hamiltonian formulations of the model and obtain the general solution to the classical equations of motion. Comparing Zitterbewegung of the spatial coordinate with the evolution of spin, we ask on the possibility of space-time interpretation for the inner space of spin. We enumerate similarities between our analogous model of the Dirac equation and the two-body system subject to confining potential which admits only the elliptic orbits of the order of de Broglie wave-length. The Dirac equation dictates the perpendicularity of the elliptic orbits to the direction of center-of-mass motion.