Towards a Hamilton-Jacobi Theory for Nonholonomic Mechanical Systems

In this paper we obtain a Hamilton-Jacobi theory for nonholonomic mechanical systems. The results are applied to a large class of nonholonomic mechanical systems, the so-called \v{C}aplygin systems.Comment: 13 pages, added references, fixed typos, comparison with previous approaches and some explanations added. To appear in J. Phys.

Singular lagrangian systems and variational constrained mechanics on Lie algebroids

The purpose of this paper is describe Lagrangian Mechanics for constrained systems on Lie algebroids, a natural framework which covers a wide range of situations (systems on Lie groups, quotients by the action of a Lie group, standard tangent bundles...). In particular, we are interested in two cases: singular Lagrangian systems and vakonomic mechanics (variational constrained mechanics). Several examples illustrate the interest of these developments.Comment: 42 pages, Section with examples improve

A general framework for nonholonomic mechanics: Nonholonomic Systems on Lie affgebroids

This paper presents a geometric description of Lagrangian and Hamiltonian systems on Lie affgebroids subject to affine nonholonomic constraints. We define the notion of nonholonomically constrained system, and characterize regularity conditions that guarantee that the dynamics of the system can be obtained as a suitable projection of the unconstrained dynamics. It is shown that one can define an almost aff-Poisson bracket on the constraint AV-bundle, which plays a prominent role in the description of nonholonomic dynamics. Moreover, these developments give a general description of nonholonomic systems and the unified treatment permits to study nonholonomic systems after or before reduction in the same framework. Also, it is not necessary to distinguish between linear or affine constraints and the methods are valid for explicitly time-dependent systems.Comment: 50 page