THE CARTAN FORM FOR CONSTRAINED LAGRANGIAN SYSTEMS AND THE NONHOLONOMIC NOETHER THEOREM

Abstract

This paper deals with conservation laws for mechanical systems with nonholonomic constraints. It uses a Lagrangian formulation of nonholonomic systems and a Cartan form approach. We present what we believe to be the most general relations between symmetries and first integrals. We discuss the so-called nonholonomic Noether theorem in terms of our formalism, and we give applications to Riemannian submanifolds, to Lagrangians of mechanical type, and to the determination of quadratic first integrals.