Basic Theoretical Physics: A Concise Overview P7. This concise treatment embraces, in four parts, all the main aspects of theoretical physics (I . Mechanics and Basic Relativity, II. Electrodynamics and Aspects of Optics, III. Non-relativistic Quantum Mechanics, IV. Thermodynamics and Statistical Physics). It summarizes the material that every graduate student, physicist working in industry, or physics teacher should master during his or her degree course. It thus serves both as an excellent revision and preparation tool, and as a convenient reference source, covering the whole of theoretical physics. It may also be successfully employed to deepen its readers’ insight and. | The Canonical Equations Energy Conservation II Poisson Brackets 53 In the second case the sum of the braced terms yields a definition for the so-called Poisson brackets tw pi _ V dH dF dH dF 1 H P ß dpi dqi dqi dpt For the three components of the above-mentioned Runge-Lenz vector F Le j with j x y z it can be shown that with the particular but most important Hamiltonian for the Kepler problem . with -A r potentials the Poisson brackets H F P vanish while the Poisson brackets of F with the other conserved quantities total momentum and total angular momentum do not vanish. This means that the Runge-Lenz vector is not only an additional conserved quantity for Kepler potentials but is actually independent of the usual conserved quantities. The equations of motion related to the names of Newton Lagrange and Hamilton . the canonical equations in the last case are essentially all equivalent but ordered in ascending degree of flexibility although the full power of the respective formalisms has not yet been and will not be exploited. We only mention here that there is a large class of transformations the so-called canonical transformations leading from the old generalized coordinates and momenta to new quantities such that Hamilton s formalism is preserved although generally with a new Hamiltonian. In quantum mechanics see Part III these transformations correspond to the important class of unitary operations. Additionally we mention another relation to quantum mechanics. The Poisson bracket A B P of two measurable quantities A and B is intimately related to the so-called commutator of the quantum mechanical operators A and B . A B p 1 AB - BA . 9 Relativity I The Principle of Maximal Proper Time Eigenzeit Obviously one could ask at this point whether Hamilton s principle of least action1 is related to similar variational principles in other fields of theoretical physics . to Fermat s principle of the shortest optical path A 3 The answer to this .
