Ostrogradski Formalism for Higher-Derivative Scalar Field Theories
High Energy Physics - Theory
2008-11-26 v2
Abstract
We carry out the extension of the Ostrogradski method to relativistic field theories. Higher-derivative Lagrangians reduce to second differential-order with one explicit independent field for each degree of freedom. We consider a higher-derivative relativistic theory of a scalar field and validate a powerful order-reducing covariant procedure by a rigorous phase-space analysis. The physical and ghost fields appear explicitly. Our results strongly support the formal covariant methods used in higher-derivative gravity.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.hep-th/9802115,
title = {Ostrogradski Formalism for Higher-Derivative Scalar Field Theories},
author = {F. J. de Urries and J. Julve},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:hep-th/9802115},
year = {2008}
}
Comments
22 pages