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arXiv · 2604.27670

Hamilton--Jacobi theory for non-conservative field theories in the $k$-contact framework

Javier de Lucas·Julia Lange·Xavier Rivas·Cristina Sardón
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Abstract

This article develops a Hamilton--Jacobi theory for non-conservative classical field theories, with particular emphasis on dissipative systems, in the framework of co-oriented k-contact geometry. We introduce evolution k-contact k-vector fields, extending the contact evolution formalism to field theories, and analyse the corresponding Hamilton--De Donder--Weyl equations. Moreover, we develop two distinct families of Hamilton--Jacobi theories: a z-independent approach, based on the reconstruction of the dynamics from an integrable k-vector field defined on the base manifold of $(\bigoplus^kT^*Q)\times\mathbb{R}^k\to Q$, and a z-dependent approach, where the integrable k-vector field is defined on the base manifold of $(\bigoplus^kT^*Q)\times\mathbb{R}^k\to Q\times\mathbb{R}^k$. We develop in detail the important case of Hamiltonian functions with affine dependence on the dissipative variables, show how quadratic dependence on these variables can be used structurally to enlarge the range of applications, and recover the ordinary contact Hamilton--Jacobi theory as the particular case k=1, while removing some technical assumptions appearing in previous formulations. Our theory is illustrated through several representative examples, including the telegrapher/Klein--Gordon equation, a dissipative Hunter--Saxton equation, a simple dissipative non-regular first-order field model, and a relativistic thermodynamic model.

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Javier de Lucas, Julia Lange, Xavier Rivas, Cristina Sardón. 2026-04-30. Hamilton--Jacobi theory for non-conservative field theories in the $k$-contact framework. https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.27670

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