Abstract:
We give a derivation of the Vlasov–Maxwell and Vlasov–Poisson–Poisson
equations from the Lagrangians of classical electrodynamics. The equations
of electromagnetic hydrodynamics (EMHD) and electrostatics with gravitation
are derived from them by means of a ‘hydrodynamical’ substitution.
We obtain and compare the Lagrange identities for various types of Vlasov
equations and EMHD equations. We discuss the advantages of writing the EMHD
equations in Godunov's double divergence form. We analyze stationary
solutions of the Vlasov–Poisson–Poisson equation, which give rise to non-linear
elliptic equations with various properties and various kinds of behaviour
of the trajectories of particles as the mass passes through a critical value.
We show that the classical equations can be derived from the Liouville
equation by the Hamilton–Jacobi method and give an analogue of this
procedure for the Vlasov equation as well as in the non-Hamiltonian case.