Reduction, Symmetry and Phases in Mechanics

Abstract

Various holonomy phenomena are shown to be instances of the reconstruction procedure for mechanical systems with symmetry. We systematically exploit this point of view for fixed systems (for example with controls on the internal, or reduced, variables) and for slowly moving systems in an adiabatic context. For the latter, we obtain the phases as the holonomy for a connection which synthesizes the Cartan connection for moving mechanical systems with the Hannay-Berry connection for integrable systems. This synthesis allows one to treat in a natural way examples like the ball in the slowly rotating hoop and also non-integrable mechanical systems.