Relativistic forces in Lagangian mechanics

Abstract

We give a general definition of \emph{relativistic force} in the context of Lagrangian mechanics. Once this is done we prove that the only relativistic forces which are linear on the velocities are those coming from differential 2-forms defined on the configuration space. In this sense, electromagnetic fields provide a mechanical system with the simplest type of relativistic forces.

8 pages. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:0801.4151

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