Lagrange brackets are certain expressions closely related to Poisson brackets that were introduced by Joseph Louis Lagrange in 1808–1810 for the purposes of mathematical formulation of classical mechanics, but unlike the Poisson brackets, have fallen out of use.

Definition

Suppose that (q1, ..., qn, p1, ..., pn) is a system of canonical coordinates on a phase space. If each of them is expressed as a function of two variables, u and v, then the Lagrange bracket of u and v is defined by the formula

Properties

Ω , viewed as a tensor, in the coordinates u. This matrix is the inverse of the matrix formed by the Poisson brackets of the coordinates u.

Lagrange matrix in canonical transformations

The concept of Lagrange brackets can be expanded to that of matrices by defining the Lagrange matrix. Consider the following canonical transformation: Defining, the Lagrange matrix is defined as , where J is the symplectic matrix under the same conventions used to order the set of coordinates. It follows from the definition that: The Lagrange matrix satisfies the following known properties:where the is known as a Poisson matrix and whose elements correspond to Poisson brackets. The last identity can also be stated as the following:Note that the summation here involves generalized coordinates as well as generalized momentum. The invariance of Lagrange bracket can be expressed as:, which directly leads to the symplectic condition: M^TJM = J.