Abstract
This is a review of the variational principle proposed by Gustav Hergotz and resent results related to it. In that variational principle the functional is defined by a certain differential equation instead of an integral. The solutions of the equations for the extrema of the functional determine contact transformations. Some of those results are: two Noether-type theorems for finding conserved quantities and identities, a method for calculating symmetry groups of the functional and several applications.
Information
Digital Object Identifier: 10.7546/giq-12-2011-214-225