2020

RIGA TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY

Faculty of Mechanical Engineering & Transport Technology

Engineering Mechanics Problems

Presentation and report Topic:

Wave Equation

Developed by: Gokul Manju Santhoshkumar

Ahmed AlNaser
Olimkhon Askarov
Vatsal Mandlesara

Riga

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction 3

Light Cone 3

Brute Force Approach and Conserved currents 4

Conclusion 5

References 5

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Introduction

This report is based on the Scientific Article from Science Direct titles “Variational
Symmetries and conservation laws of the wave equation” by Roman O Popvych and
Alexei F Cheviakov published in January 2020. This paper focuses on tying in the
law of conservation in conjunction with waves in a light cone.

The linear (1+1)-dimensional constant-coefficient wave equation in space–time

variables

Light Cone

A surface in space–time, represented as a cone in three dimensions, comprising all

the points from which a light signal would reach a given point (at the apex)
simultaneously, and which therefore appear simultaneous to an observer at the
apex.

We are going to be using Light cone coordinates to explain the wave equation. For
many initial–boundary value problems for, the corresponding solutions can be
constructed by standard methods such as the method of characteristics, separation
of variables and so on.

In the light-cone (characteristic) variables

ξ = x + t, η = x − t, u (t, x) = w (ξ, η) (2)

In partial differential equation (PDE) form, wξη = 0 (3)

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Now we are going to be considering Langarangian densities (which is a fundamental

step in Quantum Field theory used especially in specific processes occurring in a
continuos medium)

When you consider light cone coordinates and the remaining equations, only a part
of it can be converted to Kovalevskaya form. It is shown by

(4)

These are independent of i and j variables. The determining equations obtained by

splitting the condition (4) are difficult to interpret, deal with and explain. The same
happens with the computation of conservation-law characteristics for the light-cone
form (3) of the wave equation. Here things are further complicated by the fact that (3)
does not have an extended Kovalevskaya form. In an attempt to convert it to the
required form, one might lose conservation laws.

Brute Force Approach and Conserved currents

Conserved currents are the function of x (space) in the light cone that help us identify
the conservation law characteristics.

Since, Kovalevskaya form has been rendered useless, the brute-force approach is
used, working directly with conserved currents to compute all local conservation laws
of the wave equation (3) in the light-cone variables.

Then using this, we can find the conservation-law characteristics or variational

symmetries of (3), which shows that they constitute a proper subspace of the space
of all co-symmetries (conservation law characteristics) of (3). The division of these
characteristics on the basis of space gives us smaller symmetries or conservation
law characteristics. This leads to the description of the space of trivial conserved
currents of (3) and, thus, to the complete characterization of the space of local
conservation laws of (3) as a quotient space (whole).

Now the Space time variables are explicitly derived using Brute Force method by
transforming (2). In particular, it is shown that the conservation-law characteristics of
(1) have a rather complex form, which is unlikely to be obtained in the closed form
using the condition of partial Kovalevskaya form (4)

The Author then goes on to discuss the equivalence of conservation-law

characteristics on the solution space of the given system of differential equations,
and the possibility to exclude higher-rank derivatives in the system. This is made
possible by substitutions on the solution space. This approximation might lead to a

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small variation in the end result and it is discussed in various forms of the differential
equation.

Along with this approximation and transformation, we obtain the general equation as:

Conclusion

From this article we can see that the general failure to form a conservation law
characteristic equation for wave equations in 1 dimension using Light cone
coordinates is the driving force for the author to write this paper. The PDE is
transformed using Langarangian densities, Kovalevskaya form and Brute Force
method and then compared to tell us that the best approach given a small margin of
error and approximation is Brute Force method. The author further goes onto explain
the different types of differential equation and how that factors into our general
equation.

References

1. Variational symmetries and conservation laws of the wave equation in one space
dimension by Roman O. Popovych and Alexei F. Cheviakov.
2. Wikipedia
3. Causality and Light Cones – Special Relativity by Pretty Much Physics - YOUTUBE