Abstract

Abstract This chapter discusses canonical transformations and gauge transformations and is divided into three sections. In the first section, canonical coordinate transformations are introduced to the reader through generating functions as the extension of point transformations used in Lagrangian mechanics, with the harmonic oscillator being used as an example of a canonical transformation. In the second section, gauge theory is discussed in the canonical framework and compared to the Lagrangian case. Action-angle variables, direct conditions, symplectomorphisms, holomorphic variables, integrable systems and first integrals are examined. The third section looks at infinitesimal canonical transformations resulting from functions on phase space. Ostrogradsky equations in the canonical setting are also detailed.

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