Generalized Hamilton-Jacobi theory of Nambu mechanics

Abstract

We develop a Hamilton-Jacobi-like formulation of Nambu mechanics. The Nambu mechanics, originally proposed by Nambu more than four decades ago, provides a remarkable extension of the standard Hamilton equations of motion in even-dimensional phase space with a single Hamiltonian to a phase space of three (and more generally, arbitrary) dimensions with two Hamiltonians (n Hamiltonians in the case of (n + 1)-dimensional phase space) from the viewpoint of the Liouville theorem. However, it has not been formulated seriously in the spirit of Hamilton- Jacobi theory. The present study is motivated to suggest a possible direction towards quantization from a new perspective.