Classical Mechanics – Mathematical Illogical Argument in Hamilton’s Equation in Goldstein

classical-mechanicshamiltonian-formalismlagrangian-formalism

In the book of Goldstein, at page 337, while deriving the Hamilton's equations (canonical equations), he argues that

The canonical momentum was defined in Eq. (2.44) as $p_i = \partial L / \partial \dot q_i$; substituting this into the Lagrange equation (8.1), we obtain

$$ \dot p_i= \frac{\partial L}{\partial q_i} \tag{8.14}$$

so Eq. (8.13) can be written as

$$ dL = \dot p_i dq_i + p_id \dot q_i + \frac{\partial L}{\partial t}dt \tag{8.13′}$$

The Hamiltonian $H(q,p,t)$ is generated by the Legendre transformation

$$ H(q,p,t) = \dot q_i p_i – L(q, \dot q, t), \tag{8.15}$$

which has the differential

$$ dH = \dot q_i d p_i – \dot p_i d q_i – \frac {\partial L}{\partial t}, \tag{8.16} $$

where the term $p_i d \dot q_i$ is removed by the Legendre transformation. Since $dH$ can also be written as

$$ dH = \frac{\partial H}{\partial q_i}d q_i + \frac{\partial H}{\partial p_i}d p_i + \frac{\partial H}{\partial t}d t, \tag{8.17} $$

However, if $H$ is defined to be a function of $q,p,t$, then how can we define $H(q,p,t) = \dot q *p – L(q,\dot q,t)$, i.e $\dot q$ is not an argument of $H$ whereas it is in its definition.

Moreover, when he is taking the differential of $H$, he argues that $pd\dot q$ is removed, but he does not say why.

I mean mathematically speaking this whole argument is plan wrong, as far as I can see, so assuming that it is not the case, what am I missing in here ?

Best Answer

However, if $H$ is defined to be a function of $q,p,t$, then how can we define $H(q,p,t) = \dot q *p - L(q,\dot q,t)$, i.e $\dot q$ is not an argument of $H$ whereas it is in its definition.

As usual in a Legendre transform, the above expression for $H$ should be understood as a shortened notation for $$ H(q,p,t) = \dot q(q,p,t) \cdot p-L(q,\dot q(q,p,t),t) $$ where $\dot q(q,p,t)$ is obtained by inverting the definition of $p$ $$ p = \frac{\partial L}{\partial \dot q}(q, \dot q, t) $$ to obtain the function $\dot q(q,p,t)$.

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