Improvement of field method and its application to integrating motion equation in Riemann-Cartan space

Abstract

Like the Hamilton-Jacobi method, the Vujanović field method transforms the problem of seeking the particular solution of an ordinary differential equations into the problem of finding the complete solution of a first order quasilinear partial differential equation, which is usually called the basic partial differential equation. Due to no need of the strong restrictive conditions required in the classic Hamilton-Jacobi method, the Vujanović field method may be used in many fields, such as non-conservative systems, nonholonomic systems, Birkhoff systems, controllable mechanical systems, etc. Even so, there is still a fundamental difficulty in the Vujanović field method. That is, for most of dynamical systems, it is hard to find the complete solution of the basic partial differential equation. In this paper, the Vujanović field method is improved into a new field method. The purpose of the improved field method is to find the first integrals of the motion equations, but not the particular solutions of the motion equations. The improved field method points out that for a basic partial differential equation with n independent variables, m (m n) first integrals of a dynamical system can be found as long as a solution with m arbitrary constants of the basic partial differential equation is found. In particular, if the complete solution (the complete solution is a special case of m=n) of the basic partial differential equation is found, all first integrals of the dynamical system can be found. That means that the motion of the dynamical system is completely determined. The Vujanović field method is just equivalent to this particular case. The improved field method expands the applicability of the field method, and is simpler than the Vujanović field method. Two examples are given to illustrate the effectiveness of the method. In addition, the improved field method is used to integrate the motion equations in Riemann-Cartan space. For a first-order linear homogenous scleronomous nonholonomic system subjected to an active force, its motion equation in its Riemann-Cartan configuration space can be obtained by a first order nonlinear nonholonomic mapping. Since the motion equations in Riemann-Cartan configuration space contain quasi-speeds, they are often considered to be difficult to solve directly. In this paper we give a briefing of how to construct the motion equations of a first order linear nonholonomic constraint system in its Riemann-Cartan configuration space, and how to obtain the first integrals of the motion equations in the Riemann-Cartan configuration space by the improved field method. This is an effective method to study some nonholonomic nonconservative motions.