Variational principles are a powerful tool also for formulating field theories

Francesco Dell'Isola (1, 2, 3) , Luca Placidi (3, 4)

1 Dipartimento di Ingegneria Strutturale e Geotecnica
2 Laboratorio Strutture e Materiali Intelligenti - Fondazione Tullio Levi-Civita
3 M&MoCS - International Research Centre on Mathematics & Mechanics of Complex Systems
4 International Telematic University "Uninettuno"

Variational principles and calculus of variations have always been an important tool for formulating mathematical models for physical phenomena. Variational methods give an efficient and elegant way to formulate and solve mathematical problems that are of interest for scientists and engineers and are the main tool for the axiomatization of physical theories

Domains: Mathematical Physics [math-ph]; Mathematical Physics [math-ph]

Francesco Dell'Isola, Luca Placidi. Variational principles are a powerful tool also for formulating field theories. Variational Models and Methods in Solid and Fluid Mechanics, Volume 535 of the series CISM Courses and Lectures , pp.1-15, 2012. ⟨hal-00607746⟩