1302.2560 (Steffen Weissmann)

Hamiltonian dynamics of several rigid bodies interacting with point
vortices    [PDF]

Steffen Weissmann

We introduce a Hamiltonian description for the dynamics of several rigid bodies interacting with point vortices in an inviscid, incompressible fluid. We adopt the idea of Vankerschaver et al. (2009) to derive the Hamiltonian formulation via symplectic reduction of a canonical Hamiltonian system on a principle fibre bundle. On the reduced phase space we determine the magnetic symplectic form directly, without resorting to the machinery of mechanical connections on principle fibre bundles. We derive the equations of motion for the general case, and also for the special Lie-Poisson case of a single rigid body and zero total vorticity. Finally we give a partly degenerate Lagrangian formulation for the system.

View original: http://arxiv.org/abs/1302.2560