Mechanical presymplectic structures and Marsden-Weinstein reduction of time-dependent Hamiltonian systems

Abstract

In 1986, Albert proposed a Marsden-Weinstein reduction process for cosymplectic structures. In this paper, we present the limitations of this theory in the application of the reduction of symmetric time-dependent Hamiltonian systems. As a consequence, we conclude that cosymplectic geometry is not appropriate for this reduction. Motived for this fact, we replace cosymplectic structures by more general structures: mechanical presymplectic structures. Then, we develop Marsden-Weinstein reduction for this kind of structures and we apply this theory to interesting examples of time-dependent Hamiltonian systems for which Albert's reduction method doesn't work.

24 pages, 2 figures; References added