Kamiltonian

Kamiltonian

English

Etymology

Blend of K +‎ Hamiltonian; apparently popularised by a jocular comment in the textbook Classical Mechanics by Herbert Goldstein (first published 1950).

"It has been remarked in a jocular vein that if H stands for the Hamiltonian, K must stand for the Kamiltonian! Of course K is every bit as much a Hamiltonian as H, but the designation is occasionally a convenient substitute for the longer term "transformed Hamiltonian""

Noun

Kamiltonian (plural Kamiltonians)

1. (physics, Hamiltonian mechanics) A second Hamiltonian, denoted by K, resulting from the canonical transformation of a given Hamiltonian.
   • 2006, Henderson Douglas, Plaschko Peter, Stochastic Differential Equations In Science And Engineering, World Scientific Publishing, page 83,

     […] gives the transformed Hamiltonian (the Kamiltonian) […] . However, it is clear that (2.108) are not the canonical equations corresponding to the Kamiltonian (2.111).