The Hahn Quantum Variational Calculus

We introduce the Hahn quantum variational calculus. Necessary and sufficient optimality conditions for the basic, isoperimetric, and Hahn quantum Lagrange problems, are studied. We also show the validity of Leitmann's direct method for the Hahn quantum variational calculus, and give explicit solutions to some concrete problems. To illustrate the results, we provide several examples and discuss a quantum version of the well known Ramsey model of economics.Comment: Submitted: 3/March/2010; 4th revision: 9/June/2010; accepted: 18/June/2010; for publication in Journal of Optimization Theory and Application

Fractional conservation laws in optimal control theory

Using the recent formulation of Noether's theorem for the problems of the calculus of variations with fractional derivatives, the Lagrange multiplier technique, and the fractional Euler-Lagrange equations, we prove a Noether-like theorem to the more general context of the fractional optimal control. As a corollary, it follows that in the fractional case the autonomous Hamiltonian does not define anymore a conservation law. Instead, it is proved that the fractional conservation law adds to the Hamiltonian a new term which depends on the fractional-order of differentiation, the generalized momentum, and the fractional derivative of the state variable.Comment: The original publication is available at http://www.springerlink.com Nonlinear Dynamic

Contrasting two transformation-based methods for obtaining absolute extrema

In this note, we contrast two transformation-based methods to deduce absolute extrema and the corresponding extremizers. Unlike variation-based methods, the transformation-based methods of Carlson and Leitmann and the recent one of Silva and Torres are direct in that they permit obtaining solutions by inspection. © 2007 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC