Hamilton-Jacobi方法通常被认为是求解完整保守Hamilton系统正则方程的重要手段,但通过现代微分几何理论发现,这种方法的适用范围不仅仅局限于完整保守的Hamilton系统.根据Hamilton—Jacobi理论,证明了经典Hamilton—Jacobi方法可以被推广至一类特殊的非保守Hamilton系统,即如果非保守Hamilton系统受到非保守力,则该系统的Hamilton正则方程也可以用Hamilton—Jacobi方法求解;对于这类非保守Hamilton系统,只要能够找到其对应的Hamilton—Jacobi方程的一个完全解,就可以得到系统正则方程的全部第一积分.经典的Hamilton—Jacobi方法则是上述方法的一个特例.
The Hamilton-Jacobi equation is an important nonlinear partial differential equation. In particular, the classical Hamilton-Jacobi method is generally considered to be an important means to solve the holonomic conservative dynamics problems in classical dynamics. According to the classical Hamilton-Jacobi theory, the classical Hamilton-Jacobi equation corresponds to the canonical Hamilton equations of the holonomic conservative dynamics system. If the complete solution of the classical Hamilton-Jacobi equation can be found, the solution of the canonical Hamilton equations can be found by the algebraic method. From the point of geometry view, the essential of the Hamilton-Jacobi method is that the Hamilton-Jacobi equation promotes the vector field on the cotangent bundle T*M to a constraint submanifold of the manifold T*M × R, and if the integral curve of the promoted vector field can be found, the projection of the integral curve in the cotangent bundle T*M is the solution of the Hamilton equations. According to the geometric theory of the first order partial differential equations, the Hamilton-Jacobi method may be regarded as the study of the characteristic curves which generate the integral manifolds of the Hamilton 2-form w. This means that there is a duality relationship between the Hamilton-Jacobi equation and the canonical Hamilton equations. So if an action field, defined on U ×I (U is an open set of the configuration manifold M, I R), is a solution of the Hamilton-Jacobi equation, then there will exist a differentiable map φ from M × R to T*M× R which defines an integral submanifold for the Hamilton 2-form ω. Conversely, if φ*ω = 0 and H1(u × I)= 0 (HI(U × I) is the first de Rham group of U × I), there will exist an action field S satisfying the Hamilton-Jacobi equation. Obviously, the above mentioned geometric theory can not only be applicable to the classical Hamilton-Jacobi equation, but also to the general Hamilton-Jacobi equation, in which some first order part