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A homogeneous deformation has the same deformation gradient at every material point. On a connected reference domain it is an affine map $y(X)=FX+b$ with constant matrix $F$ and translation $b$. Orientation preservation requires $\det F>0$. Its stretches and local volume ratio are spatially constant. A homogeneous deformation describes the kinematics; a homogeneous hyperelastic material instead describes spatial independence of a constitutive law.

Cauchy's stress hypothesis says that traction across a cut depends locally on its point, time and oriented normal, rather than on the global shape of the cut. Here all areas and normals are referential: $E$ is a fixed material region in reference coordinates, ${\rho }_R$ its mass density per reference volume, $v$ the current particle velocity, $b$ body force per unit mass, and $s_R$ force per unit reference area. The time derivative on the left is total material momentum rate; the two right terms are contact and body forces.

A shrinking pillbox gives $s_R(-N)=-s_R(N)$. In a shrinking tetrahedron the volume contributions scale as its linear size cubed, whereas face forces scale as size squared. Their leading balance expresses traction on an arbitrary face as the normal-component-weighted sum of tractions on three coordinate faces. Defining those three tractions as tensor columns gives $\boxed{s_R(N)=T_{R}N}$. Applying the divergence theorem to momentum balance and localizing over arbitrary $E$ then yieldsThe referential tensor is the first Piola-Kirchhoff stress and need not be symmetric; it should not be silently identified with the spatial Cauchy stress.

Incompressibility is $\boxed{\det F=1}$. For a homogeneous hyperelastic material the referential constitutive relation becomeswhere the undetermined scalar pressure $p$ enforces the constraint. Homogeneity removes explicit reference-position dependence from $W$, not the possible spatial variation of that pressure.

For the neo-Hookean energy, $DW=2\alpha F$. For the positive diagonal ansatz the nominal principal stresses are $t_i=2\alpha v_i-p/v_i$. Since $F$ is constant, equilibrium requires $\mathrm{cof}F\nabla p=0$, so $p$ is constant. Stress-free endfaces give $\boxed{p=2\alpha v_3^2>0}$. The side normals include $(0,-1,0)$ and $\pm (\sqrt{3}/2,1/2,0)$, so their prescribed tractions force $\boxed{t_1=t_2=T}$.

For fixed positive $p$, the scalar function $2\alpha v-p/v$ is strictly increasing on $v>0$. Thus equality of the two nominal stresses implies $v_1=v_2=v$. Incompressibility gives $v_3=v^{-2}$, and substitution givesThe load function has derivative $2\alpha (1+5v^{-6})>0$, tends to minus infinity as $v\downarrow 0$ and to infinity as $v\to \infty$. It therefore determines exactly one positive $v$ for every specified load, with $v\ge 1$ for outward tensile $T\ge 0$. The resulting constant stress satisfies equilibrium and every prescribed face traction, proving existence and uniqueness within the requested positive diagonal class. It does not claim uniqueness among all possible nonhomogeneous deformations. This is the equibiaxial dead loading of a neo-Hookean prism.

A homogeneous hyperelastic material has a stored energy per reference volume $W(F)$ depending on the local deformation gradient but not explicitly on the material point. Its first Piola-Kirchhoff response isA superposed rigid rotation changes the observer's description without changing the energy of the deformation. Material frame indifference is thereforeThis left-rotation invariance is distinct from a material isotropy assumption on right rotations. Differentiate it in an arbitrary matrix direction $H$:The Frobenius inner product then gives $Q^T\hat{T}(QF)=\hat{T}(F)$, proving $\hat{T}(QF)=Q\hat{T}(F)$.

For the converse, that stress covariance makes the derivative in $F$ of $W(QF)-W(F)$ zero. The positive-determinant matrices form a connected set, as also follows from polar decomposition, so this difference is a constant $c(Q)$ independent of $F$. Composition gives $c(Q_1{Q}_2)=c(Q_1)+c(Q_2)$. For fixed $F$, continuity of $W$ and compactness of $\mathrm{SO}(3)$ make $c$ bounded. But $c(Q^n)=nc(Q)$ for every positive integer, forcing $c(Q)=0$. Thus stress covariance and frame indifference of the energy are equivalent. Compactness removes the possible additive energy constant in the converse.

A homogeneous hyperelastic material has a strain energy density per unit reference volume $W(F)$ depending on the deformation gradient, with no explicit dependence on the reference configuration. For orientation-preserving gradients $F\in G{L}^{+}(3)$, its first Piola-Kirchhoff stress tensor is the derivative:Equivalently the infinitesimal stored-energy change is $DW(F)[H]=T:H$. Reference and spatial indices are distinguished here by upper- and lowercase index letters.

The material symmetry group may be written $G_W=\{H\in G{L}^{+}(3):W(FH)=W(F)\text{ for every }F\in G{L}^{+}(3)\}$. A volume-preserving relabelling convention restricts the candidate $H$ to $SL(3)$; the material isotropy criterion is the same. The material has material isotropy when $SO(3)\subseteq G_W$, meaning $W(FQ)=W(F)$ for every proper rotation $Q$. If only rotational symmetries are included in the definition of the group, material isotropy means that group equals $SO(3)$. This right-rotation invariance is distinct from material frame indifference, the left-rotation invariance $W(QF)=W(F)$.

The polar decomposition in continuum mechanics gives the unique factorizationswhere $U,V$ are positive-definite symmetric matrices. Their common positive eigenvalues ${\lambda }_1,{\lambda }_2,{\lambda }_3$ are the principal stretches, equivalently the singular values of $F$. They describe the local stretch magnitudes after separating out a rigid rotation.

Let the boundary split into a displacement part ${\Gamma }_D$ and a traction part ${\Gamma }_N$. The linearized stored elastic energy functional isIts corresponding total potential subtracts the work of fixed body and surface loads:The problem in the calculus of variations is to minimize $\Pi$ among admissible displacements with $u=u_D$ on ${\Gamma }_D$. For a stable quadratic elastic energy this is the usual energy minimization formulation. Its stationarity condition suffices to derive equilibrium.

Vary by $u+sv$, with $v=0$ on ${\Gamma }_D$. Major symmetry combines the two differentiated quadratic terms, givingIntegration by parts, first with test functions compactly supported in the interior, gives $-\mathrm{Div}{S}^{\mathrm{lin}}=f$. Then arbitrary traces on ${\Gamma }_N$ give the natural traction condition. The complete boundary value problem isFor a homogeneous hyperelastic material the elasticity tensor is constant. In isotropic linear elasticity the constitutive equation is $S^{\mathrm{lin}}=\lambda \mathrm{div}uI+\mu (Du+D{u}^T)$, giving the familiar Navier-Cauchy equation $-\mu \Delta u-(\lambda +\mu )\nabla \mathrm{div}u=f$.