Hamilton-Jacobi Treatment of a Non-Relativistic Particle on a Curved Space

Abstract

In this paper a non-relativistic particle moving on a hypersurface in a curved space and the multidimensional rotator are investigated using the Hamilton-Jacobi formalism. The equivalence with the Dirac Hamiltonian formalism is demonstrated in both Cartesian and curvilinear coordinates. The energy spectrum of the multidimensional rotator is equal to that of a pure Laplace-Beltrami operator with no additional constant arising from the curvature of the sphere.