Lagrangian

This book provides an innovative and mathematically sound treatment of the foundations of analytical mechanics and the relation of classical mechanics to relativity and quantum theory. It is intended for use at the introductory graduate level. A distinguishing feature of the book is its integration of special relativity into teaching of classical mechanics.

The first two chapters of the book deal, in a detailed way, with relativistic kinematics and dynamics, while in the third chapter some elementary concepts of General Relativity are given. Eventually, after an introduction to tensor calculus, a Lorentz covariant formulation of electromagnetism is given its quantization is developed.

Substantial effort has been drawn for years onto the development of (possibly high-order) numerical techniques for the scalar homogeneous conservation law, an equation which is strongly dissipative in L1 thanks to shock wave formation.