Lagrangian/Hamiltonian for classical point particles in SR

[Fredrik]

Anyone know a good place to read about the Lagrangian or Hamiltonian approach to the equations of motion of classical point particles in Minkowski spacetime? It doesn't have to go very deep into it, but it should at least include a discussion of symmetries and conserved quantities.

 

[atyy]

http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/classical/cm05week03.pdf

http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/classical/texfiles/2005/book/classical.pdf

 

[Fredrik]

Thanks atyy. That seems to be exactly what I need.

 

[dx]

You may also find chapter 2 (relativistic mechanics) of Landau's book "Classical Theory of Fields" useful.

http://books.google.com/books?id=QI...theory of fields&pg=PA25#v=onepage&q=&f=false