Hamiltonian Formalism – How to Prove 2-Form is a Symplectic Form

differential-geometryhamiltonian-formalismhomework-and-exercisesphase-space

The form What I say is

$$\omega= dp_{\mu}\land dq^{\mu} $$
(I wrote anyway because the question is quick) how prove that are sympletic, i prove that $$d\omega=0$$but how prove that this is non-degenerate?

Obs:For those who have not read the title q is position and p is momentum

In my attempts I used another vector field that I found out now was the reason I wasn't able to prove it, but would it be that I could prove it with this vector field?

$$X(f) =\partial_{p{\mu}}f \partial_{q^{\mu}} – \partial _{q^{\mu}}f \partial_{p{\mu}}$$

To better understand the notation

If $$f(q, p) =H(q, p) (hamiltonian) $$

$$X(H) =\frac{d} {dt} $$

Best Answer

Part of your trouble may be related to the somewhat artificial splitting between $q$'s and $p$'s here. Let's take a $2$-dimensional configuration space with coordinates $(q^1,q^2)$. An arbitrary point in the cotangent bundle then has the four coordinates $x \equiv (q^1,q^2,p_1,p_2)$, so $x^1=q^1,x^2=q^2,x^3=p_1,x^4=p_2$.

In this language, the canonical $2$-form can be written $$\omega= \mathrm dx^3\wedge \mathrm dx^1 + \mathrm dx^4 \wedge \mathrm dx^2 $$ $$\equiv \frac{1}{2}\big(\mathrm dx^3\otimes \mathrm dx^1 - \mathrm dx^1 \otimes \mathrm dx^3 + \mathrm dx^4 \otimes \mathrm dx^2 - \mathrm dx^2 \otimes \mathrm dx^4\big)$$ If we feed this $2$-form two arbitrary vectors $A = \sum_{n=1}^4 A^n \frac{\partial}{\partial x^n}$ and $B = \sum_{n=1}^4 B^n \frac{\partial}{\partial x^n}$, we obtain $$\omega(A,B)= \frac{1}{2}\big(A^3B^1-A^1B^3 + A^4B^2 - A^2 B^4\big)$$ Recall that $\omega$ is non-degenerate $\iff \omega(A,B)=0$ for all $B$ implies that $A=0$. If the expression $\omega(A,B)$ written above is equal to zero for every possible vector $B$, what does that tell you about $A$?


In my attempts I used another vector field that I found out now was the reason I wasn't able to prove it, but would it be that I could prove it with this vector field? $$X(f) =\partial_{p{\mu}}f \partial_{q^{\mu}} - \partial _{q^{\mu}}f \partial_{p{\mu}}$$ To better understand the notation If $$f(q, p) =H(q, p) (hamiltonian) $$ $$X(H) =\frac{d} {dt} $$

I believe I understand your follow-up question. Let the phase space be given by $X$. Given a non-degenerate $(0,2)$-tensor $B:TX\times TX\rightarrow \mathbb R$, one can define a map $\flat: TX \rightarrow T^*X$ via $ A^\flat := B(A,\cdot)$, where $\cdot$ denotes an empty slot. In component form, $$(A^\flat)_\mu = B_{\mu\nu} A^\nu$$ If we define $\tilde B$ to be the $(2,0)$-tensor whose components are the matrix inverse of the components of $B$ (by which I mean, $\tilde B^{\mu\alpha} B_{\alpha\nu} = \delta^\mu_\nu$) then $\tilde B$ defines the inverse map $$\sharp : T^*X \rightarrow TX$$ $$(\alpha^\sharp)^\mu = \tilde B^{\mu\nu} \alpha_\nu$$

This association between the tangent vectors and covectors is called a musical isomorphism, and it is well-defined if and only if $B$ is non-degenerate (so that the matrix $B_{\mu\nu}$ is invertible).


With that out of the way, to each smooth function $f$ corresponds a so-called Hamiltonian vector field $X_f$ given by $X_f := (\mathrm df)^\sharp$, where the musical isomorphism is provided by $\omega$. In canonical coordinates, one has that

$$f \mapsto X_f = \sum_n\frac{\partial f}{\partial p_n} \frac{\partial}{\partial q^n} - \frac{\partial f}{\partial q^n} \frac{\partial}{\partial p_n}$$

The association $\mathrm df \leftrightarrow X_f$ is an isomorphism if and only if $\omega$ is non-degenerate. In explicit component form (in canonical coordinates), the association takes the form

$$\underbrace{\left(\frac{\partial f}{\partial q^1},\frac{\partial f}{\partial q^2},\frac{\partial f}{\partial p_1}, \frac{\partial f}{\partial p_2}\right)}_{\text{components of }\mathrm df}\leftrightarrow \underbrace{\left(\frac{\partial f}{\partial p_1},\frac{\partial f}{\partial p_2},-\frac{\partial f}{\partial q^1}, -\frac{\partial f}{\partial q^2}\right)}_{\text{components of }X_f}$$

It's obvious that this is an isomorphism - the components are just shuffled around, modulo a minus sign - and so the bilinear form $\omega$ from which it is derived must be non-degenerate.

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