Integrability conditions for the existence of a Lagrangian in Newtonian mechanics and field theory. Annual progress report, March 1, 1978-May 31, 1979

Studies of general covariance and its application to particle motion and continuum mechanics were continued. Also developed was a new method in microlocal analysis which has applications to integral geometry, geometrical quantization and the fine structure of certain types of spectra. The classical aspect of a program was studied by a comprehensive analysis of the integrability conditions for the existence of a Lagrangian or, independently, of a Hamiltonian for the representation of given Newtonian systems with forces nonderivable from a potential, as well as the methods for the computation of these functions from the equations of motion. The study of a classical, complementary, methodological approach to the same class of systems was also initiated. It consists of the representation of systems with forces nonderivable from a potential via a generalization of Hamilton's equations posessing a Lie-admissible algebraic structure. The problem of the quantization of forces nonderivable from a potential was then studied via the use of these complementary methods. The use of the integrability conditions for the existence of a Hamiltonian representation (the inverse problem) yielded, under certain restrictions, the conventional Heisenberg's equations, but expressed in terms of a generalized Hamiltonian structure. The use of the Lie-admissible formulations yielded a generalization of Heisenberg's equations possessing a generalized (Lie-admissible) algebraic structure, but expressed in terms of a conventional Hamiltonian structure. These preliminary studies were then applied to the investigation of the old idea that the strong interactions are of the type considered, local and nonderivable from a potential, as an approximation of expected nonlocal settings. The experimental verification of Pauli's exclusion principle and other basic physical laws for the nuclear and the hadronic structure was proposed. A list of publications is included