Discrete Mechanical Systems in a Dirac Setting: a Proposal

Abstract

In these notes, we present an alternative version of discrete Dirac mechanics using Dirac structures. We first establish a notion of 'continuous Dirac system' and then propose a definition of discrete Dirac system, proving that it is possible to recover discrete Lagrangian and Hamiltonian systems as particular cases. We also note that this approach allows for kinematic as well as variational constraints.