PHY509: Hamiltonian Dynamics in a Nutshell

Hamiltons principle: Action I has a stationary value with respect to arbitrary but infinitesimal
variations in (q, p),
Z

I =

[pq H(qp)]dt =

H
H

p q + q
q
p

Z 

p dt p =

H
H
, q =
.
q
p

Notation: Variable without index means a collective set, i.e., q (q1 , q2 , ..., qn ).
Canonical transformation (qp) 7 (QP ) satisfies, with a generating function F

pdq H(qp)dt = P dQ H(QP

)dt + dF.
Choose F to be a function of a pair of independent variables (q, Q), (q, P ), (p, Q), (p, P ).
F
F
F

pdq H(qp)dt = P dQ H(QP

)dt +
dq +
dQ +
dt.
q
Q
t
By comparing coefficients for dq, dQ, dt,
F
F
F

, P =
, H(QP
) = H(qp) +
.
p=
q
Q
t
With F = F (q, Q, t),

A Legendre-transformed function S(q, P ) F (q, Q) + P Q has

pdq H(qp)dt = QdP H(QP

)dt + q Sdq + P SdP + t Sdt

p=

S
,
q

Q=

S
,
P

H(QP
) = H(qp) +
.
t

Find a generating function S(q, P, t) which makes H(QP

) = H(qp) + S/t = 0. P = H/Q
=0
and replace P = in S. Since p = S(q, , t)/q, we have the Hamilton-Jacobi equation,
S
S
H q,
,t +
= 0.
q
t
With a time-independent Hamiltonian, we separate the time dependence in S with the Hamiltons


characteristic function W (q, ) as

S(q, , t) = W (q, ) 1 t with 1 = E.
Then we have the time-independent Hamilton-Jacobi equation
W (q, )
H q,
q


= 1 .

The conjugate variable to is also a constant, = S(q, , t)/.

Per each q , the action variable can be defined as
I

J () =

p dq =

W (q , )
dq ,
q

with the separable Hamiltons characteristic function W (q, ). Since J ()s are also integrals of motion
J) = S(q, ) satisfies the same Hamilton-Jacobi equation, , the conjugate variable of J , are
and S(q,
also constants of motion. Then

W
1 (J)
S
=

t (q, J) (J)t,
=
J
J
J
with the angle variable (q, J) = t + and the frequency (J) = 1 (J)/J .


When the Hamiltonian H(p, q, (t)) changes adiabatically with /
 1/T (T = period), the action
variables J =

p dq are adiabatic invariants.

Let (0 , 0 ) are canonical variables satisfying the Hamilton-Jacobi equation, i.e, they are constants of
motion. With a perturbation H added to the Hamiltonian H, the canonical variables 0 (pq), 0 (pq)
are no longer constants in time. ((pq), (pq)) satisfies the Hamiltons equation of motion
=

H
,

H
=
.

The approximate solution is obtained recursively,

H
(0 , 0 ),

H
(1 , 1 ) 2 =
(1 , 1 ),

(0 , 0 ) 1 =

H
1 =
(0 , 0 )

H
2 =
(1 , 1 )