Poisson Brackets / Levi-Civita Expansion

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around the identity involving Poisson brackets and the Levi-Civita symbol, specifically the expression \{L_i, L_j\} = \epsilon_{ijk} L_k. Participants explore the manipulation of the Levi-Civita symbol and its application in the context of angular momentum operators in classical mechanics.

Discussion Character

  • Technical explanation
  • Mathematical reasoning
  • Debate/contested

Main Points Raised

  • One participant expresses difficulty in proving the identity and questions their understanding of the Levi-Civita symbol's manipulation.
  • Another participant suggests using different summation indices to clarify the expression involving the Levi-Civita symbol and the Poisson bracket.
  • A third participant questions the utility of the previous suggestion and presents a complex expression involving derivatives and the Levi-Civita symbol, indicating uncertainty about its correctness.
  • A later reply provides a detailed expansion of the Poisson bracket using the Levi-Civita symbol and concludes with a reformulation that resembles the original identity, but the steps involve several intermediate identities and manipulations.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants do not reach consensus on the manipulation of the Levi-Civita symbol or the correctness of the expressions derived. There are multiple competing views and approaches presented throughout the discussion.

Contextual Notes

Some participants express uncertainty about the correctness of their manipulations and the assumptions underlying their calculations. The discussion includes unresolved mathematical steps and dependencies on specific definitions of the symbols used.

Bismar
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Hi,

I am stumped by how to expand/prove the following identity,

\{L_i ,L_j\}=\epsilon_{ijk} L_k

I am feeling that my knowledge on how to manipulate the Levi-Civita is not up to scratch.

Am i correct in assuming,

L_i=\epsilon_{ijk} r_j p_k
L_j=\epsilon_{jki} r_k p_i

Which follows on to,

\{L_i ,L_j\}=\{\epsilon_{ijk} r_j p_k,\epsilon_{jki} r_k p_i\}

And then I'm stuck. I'm assuming the Kronecker Delta identities with the Levi-Civita work into it in some way, but i do not understand how/why.

I can work it out if i expanded the Levi-Civita to such,

L_1=r_2 p_3 - r_3 p_2
L_2=r_3 p_1 - r_1 p_3
L_3=r_1 p_2 - r_2 p_1

But then that's trivial... :(
 
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Please, use different summation indices.

\left\{\epsilon_{ilk} r_{l}p_{k}, \epsilon_{jmn}r_{m}p_{n}\right\}

Then, of course,

\left\{r_i, p_j\right\} = \delta_{ij}
 
Sorry, I'm afraid i do not understand, where does that get you?

\epsilon_{ikl} \epsilon_{jmn}(\frac{dr_k p_l}{dr_o} \frac{dr_m p_n}{dp_o} - \frac{dr_m p_n}{dr_o} \frac{dr_k p_l}{dp_o})

= \epsilon_{ikl} \epsilon_{jmn}(\delta_{ko}\delta_{no}p_l r_m -\delta_{mo}\delta_{lo} p_n r_k)

If that's even right, which I'm sure isn't, I'm stuck again.
 
<br /> \begin{split}<br /> \{L_a,L_b\} &amp;=\epsilon_{acd} \epsilon_{bef} \{x_c p_d,x_e p_f\} \\<br /> &amp;= \epsilon_{acd} \epsilon_{bef} (\{x_c,x_e p_f \} p_d+x_c \{p_d,x_e p_f \}) \\<br /> &amp;= \epsilon_{acd} \epsilon_{bef}(x_e p_d\delta_{cf} -x_c p_f \delta_{de}) \\<br /> &amp;= \epsilon_{acd} \epsilon_{bec} x_e p_d - \epsilon_{acd} \epsilon_{bdf} x_c p_f \\<br /> &amp;=[(-\delta_{ab} \delta_{de}+\delta_{ae} \delta_{db}) x_e p_d+ (\delta_{ab} \delta_{cf} - \delta_{af} \delta_{cb}) x_c p_f] \\<br /> &amp;= -\delta_{ab} \vec{x} \cdot \vec{p} + x_a p_b+\delta_{ab} \vec{x} \cdot \vec{p} -x_b p_a \\<br /> &amp;=x_a p_b-x_b p_a=\epsilon_{abc} L_c<br /> \end{split}<br />
 

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