Hamiltonian Structures and Generating Families

This book is an enhanced version of an earlier Russian edition. Besides thorough revisions, more emphasis was put on reordering the topics according to a category-theoretical view. This allows the mathematical results to be stated, proved, and understood in a much easier and elegant way. From the reviews of the Russian edition: "The main accent is shifted to the application . . . in geometrical optics, thermostatics and control theory, and not to the Hamiltonian mechanics only. . . . To make the book fairly self-contained, full details of basic definitions and all proofs are included. In this way, the majority of the text can be read without the prerequisite of a course in geometry. The excellent collection of examples illustrates the relatively hard and highly abstract mathematical theory and its hidden difficulties. . . . The book can rise real interest for specialists . . . . The . . . book is a significant input in the modern symplectic geometry and its applications." (Andrey Tsiganov, St. Petersburg State University)