Lagrangian 1-forms Research Articles

Lagrangian multiforms on coadjoint orbits for finite-dimensional integrable systems

Lagrangian multiforms provide a variational framework to describe integrable hierarchies. The case of Lagrangian 1-forms covers finite-dimensional integrable systems. We use the theory of Lie dialgebras introduced by Semenov-Tian-Shansky to construct a Lagrangian 1-form. Given a Lie dialgebra associated with a Lie algebra g\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$\\mathfrak {g}$$\\end{document} and a collection Hk\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$H_k$$\\end{document}, k=1,⋯,N\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$k=1,\\dots ,N$$\\end{document}, of invariant functions on g∗\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$\\mathfrak {g}^*$$\\end{document}, we give a formula for a Lagrangian multiform describing the commuting flows for Hk\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$H_k$$\\end{document} on a coadjoint orbit in g∗\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$\\mathfrak {g}^*$$\\end{document}. We show that the Euler–Lagrange equations for our multiform produce the set of compatible equations in Lax form associated with the underlying r-matrix of the Lie dialgebra. We establish a structural result which relates the closure relation for our multiform to the Poisson involutivity of the Hamiltonians Hk\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$H_k$$\\end{document} and the so-called double zero on the Euler–Lagrange equations. The construction is extended to a general coadjoint orbit by using reduction from the free motion of the cotangent bundle of a Lie group. We illustrate the dialgebra construction of a Lagrangian multiform with the open Toda chain and the rational Gaudin model. The open Toda chain is built using two different Lie dialgebra structures on sl(N+1)\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$\\mathfrak {sl}(N+1)$$\\end{document}. The first one possesses a non-skew-symmetric r-matrix and falls within the Adler–Kostant–Symes scheme. The second one possesses a skew-symmetric r-matrix. In both cases, the connection with the well-known descriptions of the chain in Flaschka and canonical coordinates is provided.

Hamiltonian structures for integrable hierarchies of Lagrangian PDEs

Many integrable hierarchies of differential equations allow a variational description, called a Lagrangian multiform or a pluri-Lagrangian structure. The fundamental object in this theory is not a Lagrange function but a differential $d$-form that is integrated over arbitrary $d$-dimensional submanifolds. All such action integrals must be stationary for a field to be a solution to the pluri-Lagrangian problem. In this paper we present a procedure to obtain Hamiltonian structures from the pluri-Lagrangian formulation of an integrable hierarchy of PDEs. As a prelude, we review a similar procedure for integrable ODEs. We show that exterior derivative of the Lagrangian $d$-form is closely related to the Poisson brackets between the corresponding Hamilton functions. In the ODE (Lagrangian 1-form) case we discuss as examples the Toda hierarchy and the Kepler problem. As examples for the PDE (Lagrangian 2-form) case we present the potential and Schwarzian Korteweg-de Vries hierarchies, as well as the Boussinesq hierarchy.

Multi-time Lagrangian 1-forms for families of Bäcklund transformations. Relativistic Toda-type systems

We establish the pluri-Lagrangian structure for families of Bäcklund transformations of relativistic Toda-type systems. The key idea is a novel embedding of these discrete-time (one-dimensional) systems into certain two-dimensional (2D) pluri-Lagrangian lattice systems. This embedding allows us to identify the corner equations (which are the main building blocks of the multi-time Euler–Lagrange equations) with local superposition formulae for Bäcklund transformations. These superposition formulae, in turn, are key ingredients necessary to understand and to prove commutativity of the multi-valued Bäcklund transformations. Furthermore, we discover a 2D generalization of the spectrality property known for families of Bäcklund transformations. This result produces a family of local conservations laws for 2D pluri-Lagrangian lattice systems, with densities being derivatives of the discrete 2-form with respect to the Bäcklund (spectral) parameter. Thus, a relation of the pluri-Lagrangian structure with more traditional integrability notions is established.

Gyro-gauge-independent formulation of the guiding-center reduction to arbitrary order in the Larmor radius

Guiding-center reduction is studied using gyro-gauge-independent coordinates. The Lagrangian 1-form of charged particle dynamics is Lie transformed without introducing a gyro-gauge, but using directly the unit vector of the component of the velocity perpendicular to the magnetic field as the coordinate corresponding to Larmor gyration. The reduction is shown to provide a maximal reduction for the Lagrangian and to work for all orders in the Larmor radius, following exactly the same procedure as when working with the standard gauge-dependent coordinate.The gauge-dependence is removed from the coordinate system by using a constrained variable for the gyro-angle. The closed 1-form dθ is replaced by a more general non-closed 1-form, which is equal to dθ in the gauge-dependent case. The gauge vector is replaced by a more general connection in the definition of the gradient, which behaves as a covariant derivative, in perfect agreement with the circle-bundle picture. This explains some results of previous works, whose gauge-independent expressions did not correspond to gauge fixing but did indeed correspond to connection fixing.In addition, some general results are obtained for the guiding-center reduction. The expansion is polynomial in the cotangent of the pitch-angle as an effect of the structure of the Lagrangian, preserved by Lie derivatives. The induction for the reduction is shown to rely on the inversion of a matrix, which is the same for all orders higher than three. It is inverted and explicit induction relations are obtained to go to an arbitrary order in the perturbation expansion. The Hamiltonian and symplectic representations of the guiding-center reduction are recovered, but conditions for the symplectic representation at each order are emphasized.

Multi-time Lagrangian 1-forms for families of Bäcklund transformations: Toda-type systems

General Lagrangian theory of discrete one-dimensional integrable systems is illustrated by a detailed study of Bäcklund transformations for Toda-type systems. Commutativity of Bäcklund transformations is shown to be equivalent to the consistency of the system of discrete multi-time Euler–Lagrange equations. The precise meaning of the commutativity in the periodic case, when all maps are double-valued, is established. It is shown that the gluing of different branches is governed by the so-called superposition formulas. The closure relation for the multi-time Lagrangian 1-form on solutions of the variational equations is proved for all Toda-type systems. Superposition formulas are instrumental for this proof. The closure relation was previously shown to be equivalent to the spectrality property of Bäcklund transformations, i.e., to the fact that the derivative of the Lagrangian with respect to the spectral parameter is a common integral of motion of the family of Bäcklund transformations. We relate this integral of motion to the monodromy matrix of the zero curvature representation which is derived directly from equations of motion in an algorithmic way. This serves as further evidence in favor of the idea that Bäcklund transformations serve as zero curvature representations for themselves.

Variational formulation of commuting Hamiltonian flows: Multi-time Lagrangian 1-forms

Recently, Lobb and Nijhoff initiated the study of variational (Lagrangian) structure of discrete integrable systems from the perspective of multi-dimensional consistency. In the present work, we follow this line of research and develop a Lagrangian theory of integrable one-dimensional systems. We give a complete solution of the following problem: one looks for a function of several variables (interpreted as multi-time) which delivers critical points to the action functionals obtained by integrating a Lagrangian 1-form along any smooth curve in the multi-time. The Lagrangian 1-form is supposed to depend on the first jet of the sought-after function. We derive the corresponding multi-time Euler-Lagrange equations and show that, under the multi-time Legendre transform, they are equivalent to a system of commuting Hamiltonian flows. Involutivity of the Hamilton functions turns out to be equivalent to closeness of the Lagrangian 1-form on solutions of the multi-time Euler-Lagrange equations. In the discrete time context, the analogous extremal property turns out to be characteristic for systems of commuting symplectic maps. For one-parameter families of commuting symplectic maps (B\"acklund transformations), we show that their spectrality property, introduced by Kuznetsov and Sklyanin, is equivalent to the property of the Lagrangian 1-form to be closed on solutions of the multi-time Euler-Lagrange equations, and propose a procedure of constructing Lax representations starting from the maps themselves.

Discrete-time Calogero–Moser system and Lagrangian 1-form structure

We study the Lagrange formalism of the (rational) Calogero–Moser (CM) system, both in discrete time and continuous time, as a first example of a Lagrangian 1-form structure in the sense of the recent paper (Lobb and Nijhoff 2009 J. Phys. A: Math. Theor. 42 454013). The discrete-time model of the CM system was established some time ago arising as a pole reduction of a semi-discrete version of the Kadomtsev–Petviashvili (KP) equation, and was shown to lead to an exactly integrable correspondence (multivalued map). In this paper, we present the full KP solution based on the commutativity of the discrete-time flows in the two discrete KP variables. The compatibility of the corresponding Lax matrices is shown to lead directly to the relevant closure relation on the level of the Lagrangians. Performing successive continuum limits on both the level of the KP equation and the level of the CM system, we establish the proper Lagrangian 1-form structure for the continuum case of the CM model. We use the example of the three-particle case to elucidate the implementation of the novel least-action principle, which was presented in Lobb and Nijhoff (2009), for the simpler case of Lagrangian 1-forms.