Use the material-first nominal stress tensor convention , whose reference-volume power is . At a regular constraint point, , all admissible deformation rates satisfy . Equality of mechanical power and the derivative of the strain energy density gives
for every vector in this eight-dimensional tangent hyperplane. Its orthogonal complement is the span of . Consequently the constraint reaction in hyperelastic stress is
The scalar Lagrange multiplier is not determined by the work identity: its contribution vanishes on every allowed rate. Regularity matters. For example, replacing a regular incompressibility constraint by would give zero gradient on the same admissible set and could not represent an arbitrary pressure reaction through that gradient.
For incompressibility use the regular function , with . Differentiating the alternating-tensor expression for gives
The first expression is the cofactor entry; contracting it with gives , proving the inverse formula. On this yields
With this plus-sign convention is the negative of the usual pressure multiplier.
For an equibiaxially stretched sheet, incompressibility requires the principal stretches . The printed sheet expression's is inconsistent with this constraint and must be ; the balloon expression later on the same PDF page has the correct exponent. Let denote the derivative with respect to principal stretch , evaluated on this constrained path. With no applied thickness-direction traction,
Isotropy gives at equal in-plane stretches. Hence
The equibiaxial nominal tension of an incompressible sheet is therefore
The two equal in-plane nominal tensions do work per reference volume; the thickness-direction nominal stress does no work because it is zero. That is exactly the constrained energy differential, explaining energy conservation. As a check that the printed exponent is a genuine error, a neo-Hookean solid gives , zero at the undeformed state. The derivative with the erroneous exponent would instead give at that state.
For the thin spherical balloon, use the leading reference shell volume . Its two tangential stretches are , while its thickness stretch is and its current thickness is . Define . Its total elastic energy at leading thin-shell order is
During a quasistatic increment , the enclosed volume changes by , and . Equating energy change to work of the internal excess pressure gives
This is the inflation pressure of a thin incompressible elastic balloon. The approximation neglects through-thickness variation and curvature corrections beyond leading order, and requires . It also agrees with membrane force balance: , , and . Here pressure is force per current area, while is force per reference area; confusing them would lose a factor of .
Write and assume that the material constraint is regular, so . Differentiating the constraint shows that admissible rates of the deformation gradient satisfy . The given stress-power identity says that annihilates this tangent hyperplane. Its orthogonal complement is the one-dimensional span of , so a Lagrange multiplier gives the constraint reaction in hyperelastic stress:
The sign of is a convention; the virtual work identity determines no constitutive value for this reaction. Regularity matters: a singular equation describing the same constraint need not have a nonzero gradient.
For incompressibility, take . Differentiating the expression using the Levi-Civita symbol gives
The middle expression is the corresponding entry of the cofactor matrix. Since , the nominal stress is therefore
For the neo-Hookean solid, , so in the material-first convention . The identity matrix satisfies the prescribed dead loading with , proving that the undeformed cube is always an equilibrium.
To obtain the homogeneous tensile bifurcation of a neo-Hookean cube, first seek , with . This has unit determinant. The two distinct diagonal stress equations are and . Eliminating gives
Thus the nontrivial branch is
The function decreases on and increases on , because . Its minimum is . Above this threshold there are two positive roots . For , neither root is one, and the three choices of the exceptional coordinate for each root give six distinct diagonal deformation gradients, in addition to .
At , however, and the three smaller-root matrices coincide with : it would be incorrect to count those as three new deformations. The requested existence of seven distinct homogeneous deformations nevertheless holds even at this value. For any unit vector , put
Its positive eigenvalues are , and its determinant is one. Since is an orthogonal conjugate of the diagonal solution, the same gives . Choose the six directions
Their outer products are distinct, and , so the six are distinct from one another and from . Constant nominal stress satisfies equilibrium and the prescribed surface tractions. Hence seven distinct homogeneous equilibria exist whenever . This is an existence count, not an exhaustive classification: rotated principal axes actually give a continuous family. The conventional seven axis-aligned positive-stretch branches coalesce to four distinct matrices at .
Work in the fixed reference domain , and write . For the unconstrained hyperelastic material considered here, the material-first nominal stress is . The increment of the deformation gradient and the incremental elastic moduli are
All coefficients are evaluated at the base deformation. The Hessian symmetry is ; minor interchange symmetry is unnecessary. Linearizing the momentum equation gives
The reference mass density and reference outward unit normal vector are fixed, so the incremental boundary conditions are
In particular, no variation of a current surface normal belongs in this material-coordinate traction condition. If a material constraint were imposed, one would additionally linearize its constraint reaction in hyperelastic stress and its admissibility equation; the present moduli formula is the unconstrained one.
The first Piola-Kirchhoff stress tensor maps a reference normal to force per reference area. The Cauchy stress tensor maps a current normal to force per current area. Nanson's formula gives . Equating the actual surface force in both descriptions gives , and therefore
For incompressibility . The strain-energy derivative only fixes the constitutive stress up to a constraint reaction in hyperelastic stress: , hence . The scalar is a Lagrange multiplier determined by equilibrium and boundary tractions, rather than by the isochoric energy alone.
In principal stretch axes, the extra principal stress is , up to that arbitrary spherical reaction. With , its eigenvalues are , so isotropy yields
For the prescribed simple shear,
The faces retain normal , and zero traction there gives . Thus
This constant stress satisfies the interior equilibrium equation, and the remaining face forces maintain the deformation.
To compute the angle, the material face becomes the spatial plane . Its outward unit normal and an in-plane unit tangent are
Resolve the current traction into these directions:
Since for nonzero , the angle lies above , and
Using at zero gives
Using the undeformed normal would give the wrong coefficient. The transformed unit normal is essential to this simple-shear traction angle for a Mooney-Rivlin solid.
Write the first strain invariant in components of the deformation gradient:
Here lower-case and upper-case indices refer to the current configuration and reference configuration, respectively. Differentiating gives . The chain rule therefore gives
Substitution into the given hyperelastic material law, with its indicated matrix transpose, yields
The left Cauchy-Green deformation tensor is . The scalar is the Lagrange multiplier enforcing incompressibility, rather than a function fixed by the strain energy density alone. The identity matrix makes this an isotropic constraint reaction in hyperelastic stress.
Restore the particle label suppressed in the question, writing the static family as . At each fixed , its Cauchy stress tensor satisfies
This dynamic continuation of a static incompressible elastic deformation sets to form a motion. At every time its deformation gradient is the same as that of the corresponding static member. For an elastic material the elastic part of the Cauchy stress tensor depends on that deformation gradient, while incompressibility leaves an arbitrary scalar constraint reaction in hyperelastic stress. Therefore write
Here is the identity matrix. Subtracting static balance of linear momentum from dynamic balance of linear momentum gives
Since the homogeneous incompressible material has constant mass density, define . Necessarily
Conversely, suppose this acceleration potential exists. Choose . Then
The added isotropic stress is symmetric, so angular momentum conservation remains satisfied. This proves both directions for the field equations and the elastic constitutive equation. The surface tractions for the motion are those of the adjusted stress; identical prescribed static tractions would impose an additional boundary restriction on .