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Application of Lagrange Multipliers in action principle

Physics Asked on July 11, 2021

In Goldstein’s Classical Mechanics, he suggests the use of Lagrange Multipliers to introduce certain types of non-holonomic and holonomic contraints into our action. The method he suggests is to define a modified Lagrangian $$L^{‘}(dot{q},q;t) = L(dot{q},q;t) + sum^{m}_{i = 1}lambda_{i} f_{i}(dot{q},q;t),$$ where $f_{i}(dot{q},q;t)$ are $m$ equations of constraint, and $L$ the original Lagrangian. He then proceeds to define the action $S^{‘} = int_{t_{1}}^{t_{2}}L^{‘},dt$ and takes the variation of $S^{‘}$ to be zero, thus applying Hamilton’s principle.

My confusion in this approach arises from the way in which the Lagrange Multipliers are introduced. I don’t see why $sum^{m}_{i = 1}lambda_{i} f_{i}(dot{q},q;t)$ should be introduced inside the integral.

In multivariable calculus, the Lagrange multiplier system stems from the idea that if we want to extremize a function subject to certain constraints, then the gradient of the function will be proportional to a linear combination of the gradient of the constraint equations. Here, the function in question is the action, not the Lagrangian. So, I feel like the resolution should be that $$delta S + delta sum^{m}_{i = 1}lambda_{i} f_{i}(dot{q},q;t) = 0;, S = int_{t_{1}}^{t_{2}}L,dt$$ and not $$delta S^{‘} = 0; , S = int_{t_{1}}^{t_{2}}L^{‘},dt.$$

To me, it isn’t clear if this makes sense or if the two methods are equivalent.

One Answer

  1. It should be stressed that the constraints $$f_{ell}(q,dot{q},t), qquad ell~in~{1,ldots, m}$$ depends implicitly (and possible explicitly) of time $t$, so we have continuously many constraints, namely for each instant of time $t$.

    Therefore we should introduce continuously many Lagrange multipliers $lambda^{ell}(t)$.

    And therefore we should sum $sum_{ell=1}^m$ and time-integrate $int! dt$ the term $lambda^{ell}(t)f_{ell}(q,dot{q},t)$ in the extended action. This fact seems to answer OP's main question.

  2. Finally, it should be stressed that Goldstein's treatment of non-holonomic constraints for an action principle is flawed/inconsistent, cf. e.g. this & this Phys.SE posts.

    Properly speaking we should therefore assume that the constraints $f_{ell}(q,dot{q},t)$ does not depend on the generalized velocities $dot{q}$, i.e. that they are holonomic $f_{ell}(q,t)$.

Correct answer by Qmechanic on July 11, 2021

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