CLASSICAL MECHANICS TFY4345 - Exercise 13

(1a) The Hamiltonian for a particle with mass m is in cylin- Assume now that W is separable in the following manner:
drical coordinates (r, θ, z) given by: W = pθ θ + S1 (r) + S2 (z), and show that the quantity

p2r p2 p2 1 0
H= + θ 2 + z +V. (1) β = b(z) + [S (z)]2 (3)
2m 2mr 2m 2m 2
Assume that the potential is separable in the following way: has to be a constant. Finally, write down the solution for
V = a(r)+b(z), where a(r) and b(z) are known functions. Put Hamilton’s principal function on integral form.
S(q, α,t) = W (q, α) − αt into the Hamilton-Jacobi equation:
(1b) What are the advantages of using the Hamilton-Jacobi
∂S ∂S formalism to solve a mechanical problem compared to other
H(q, ,t) + = 0. (2)
∂q ∂t methods such as the Lagrangian method?