Classical Mechanics in Hamiltonian Form We consider a point particle of mass m, position x moving in a potential V (x).

It moves according to Newtons law, mx + V ( x) = 0 (1)

This is the usual and simplest description of classical mechanics. However, for the purposes of quantum mechanics it is useful to cast these classical equations of motion in a different form. This material will be familiar to students who have done the Advanced Classical Mechanics course. The details of what follows are not essential to the FQM course but familiarity with these results is expected. Action and Lagrangian We first consider the Lagrangian form, in which it is asserted that the equations of motion Eq.(1) arise as the condition determining the configuration x(t) which extremizes the action
t2

S=
t1

dt L(x, x )

(2)

subject to x(t) being fixed at initial and final times. The calculus of variations shows that for given Lagrangian funcion L(x, x ), the funtion x(t) extremizing S satisfies the Euler-Lagrange equation d dt We take the Lagrangian to be 1 L = mx 2 V ( x) 2 and Eq.(1) follows. Alternatively, Eq.(1) may be derived directly by requiring that the first order variation S of the action S is zero, under a variation x(t) of x(t), subject to x(t) fixed at the end-points, so that x(t1 ) = 0 = x(t2 ) We take L to be given by Eq.(4) and we therefore have
t2

L x

L =0 x

(3)

(4)

(5)

S =
t1

dt (mx x V (x)x)
t2 t1
2 dt (mx + V (x)) x(t) + [mxx (t)]t t1

(6)

The end-point term vanishes by the end-point conditions, Eq.(5). Requiring that S = 0 for all x(t) satisfying the end-point conditions immediately leads to the classical equations of motion, Eq.(1). Hamiltonian Form It is very useful to pass to a different description of the classical dynamics in which the position x and momentum p = mx enter as independent dynamical variables. This form, the Hamiltonian form, is essential for the passage to quantum mechanics. We define the momentum by p= L = mx x (7)

and we seek a transformation from a description in terms of ( x, x ) to a description in terms of (x, p). (This is called a Legendre transformation and such transformation are used extensively in thermodynamics). The way to proceed is to define the Hamiltonian, H (x, p) = px L(x, x ) This is a function of independent variables (x, p) because dH = dp x + p dx = dp x L dx x L L dx dx x x (9) (8)

using the definition of p. Since we also have dH = it follows that x = H , p L H = x x (11) H H dp + dx p x (10)

Finally, the Euler-Lagrange equation (i.e. the classical equations of moton) and the definition of p shows that L =p x and we arrive at the Hamiltonian form of the equations of motion x = H , p 2 p = H x (13) (12)

(Note the minus sign in the second equation). Here, the Hamiltonian H is deduced, for a given Lagrangian, from Eq.(8) and for the point particle system considered here is H= p2 + V ( x) 2m (14)

which is recognizable as the energy of the system. It is readily confirmed that Eqs.(13), (14) give the classical equation of motion Eq.(1). The Hamilton equations may also be derived from the action
t2

S=
t1

dt (px H (p, x))

(15)

similar to the Lagrangian form, except that variations are taken with respect to both x and p, as independent variables, with x(t) satisfying the conditions Eq.(5), but p(t) does not need to satisfy any conditions at the end-points. The Hamilton equations of motion may be usefully rewritten using the Poisson bracket between any pair of phase space functions A(x, p), B (x, p), defined by {A, B } = A B B A x p x p (16)

It has a number of properties that make it almost identical to the commutator in quantum mechanics, in particular, {x, p} = 1 Note also that {A, B } = {B, A} {A, BC } = B {A, C } + {A, B }C Hamiltons equation may be rewritten in terms of the Poisson bracket as x = {x, H }, p = {p, H } (18) (17)

(Note that neither equation has a minus sign this is taken care of by the definition of the Poisson bracket). In fact, the equations of motion are concisely summarized by the statement that any function on phase space F (x, p) evolves in time according to dF = {F, H } dt We will encounter the analogue of this equation in quantum mechanics. 3 (19)