Lagrangian and Dirac constraints for the ideal incompressible fluid and magnetohydrodynamics

Year: 2020

Authors: Morrison P. J.; Andreussi T.; Pegoraro F.

Autors Affiliation: Univ Texas Austin, Inst Fus Studies, Austin, TX 78712 USA; Univ Texas Austin, Inst Fus Studies, Austin, TX 78712 USA; SITAEL SpA, I-56121 Pisa, Italy; Dipartimento Fis E Fermi, I-56127 Pisa, Italy

Abstract: The incompressibility constraint for fluid flow was imposed by Lagrange in the so-called Lagrangian variable description using his method of multipliers in the Lagrangian (variational) formulation. An alternative is the imposition of incompressibility in the Eulerian variable description by a generalization of Dirac?s constraint method using noncanonical Poisson brackets. Here it is shown how to impose the incompressibility constraint using Dirac?s method in terms of both the canonical Poisson brackets in the Lagrangian variable description and the noncanonical Poisson brackets in the Eulerian description, allowing for the advection of density. Both cases give the dynamics of infinite-dimensional geodesic flow on the group of volume preserving diffeomorphisms and explicit expressions for this dynamics in terms of the constraints and original variables is given. Because Lagrangian and Eulerian conservation laws are not identical, comparison of the various methods is made.

Journal/Review: JOURNAL OF PLASMA PHYSICS

Volume: 86 (3)      Pages from:   to:

More Information: P.J.M. was supported by U.S. Dept. of Energy under contract #DE-FG02-04ER-54742. He would also like to acknowledge support from the Humboldt Foundation and the hospitality of the Numerical Plasma Physics Division of the IPP, Max Planck, Garching. F.P. would like to acknowledge the hospitality of the Institute for Fusion Studies of the University of Texas at Austin.
KeyWords: plasma dynamics, plasma flows, plasma nonlinear phenomena
DOI: 10.1017/S0022377820000331