English

Existence of a Variational Principle for PDEs with Symmetries and Current Conservation

Differential Geometry 2019-10-07 v2

Abstract

We prove that under certain assumptions a partial differential equation can be derived from a variational principle. It is well-known from Noether's theorem that symmetries of a variational functional lead to conservation laws of the corresponding Euler-Lagrange equation. We reverse this statement and prove that a differential equation which satisfies sufficiently many symmetries and corresponding conservation laws leads to a variational functional whose Euler-Lagrange equation is the given differential equation.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1906.10976,
  title  = {Existence of a Variational Principle for PDEs with Symmetries and Current Conservation},
  author = {Markus Dafinger},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1906.10976},
  year   = {2019}
}