Related papers: Comments on Galileons
We determine the most general scalar field theories which have an action that depends on derivatives of order two or less, and have equations of motion that stay second order and lower on flat space-time. We show that those theories can all…
We demonstrate how, for an arbitrary number of dimensions, the Galileon actions and their covariant generalizations can be obtained through a standard Kaluza-Klein compactification of higher-dimensional Lovelock gravity. In this setup, the…
An alternative for the construction of fundamental theories is the introduction of Galileons. These are fields whose action leads to non higher than second-order equations of motion. As this is a necessary but not sufficient condition to…
The phenomenon of an implicit function which solves a large set of second order partial differential equations obtainable from a variational principle is explicated by the introduction of a class of universal solutions to the equations…
We establish a correspondence between general relativity with diffeomorphism invariance and scalar field theories with Galilean invariance: notions such as the Levi-Civita connection and the Riemann tensor have a Galilean counterpart. This…
This paper is aimed at a (mostly) pedagogical exposition of the derivation of the motion equations of certain modifications of general relativity. Here we derive in all detail the motion equations in the Brans-Dicke theory with the cubic…
A geometric approach is used to study a family of higher-order nonlinear Abel equations. The inverse problem of the Lagrangian dynamics is studied in the particular case of the second-order Abel equation and the existence of two alternative…
New, gauge-independent, second-order Lagrangian for the motion of classical, charged test particles is proposed. It differs from the standard, gauge-dependent, first order Lagrangian by boundary terms only. A new method of deriving…
We construct simple Lagrangians of vector fields which involve second derivatives, but nevertheless lead to second order field equations. These vector fields are, therefore, analogs of generalized Galileons. Our construction is given first…
We consider the recently introduced "galileon" field in a dynamical spacetime. When the galileon is assumed to be minimally coupled to the metric, we underline that both field equations of the galileon and the metric involve up to…
Elementary features of galileon models are discussed at an introductory level. Following a simple example, a general formalism leading to a hierarchy of field equations and Lagrangians is developed for flat spacetimes. Legendre duality is…
We derive the equations of motion of an action-dependent version of the Einstein-Hilbert Lagrangian, as a specific instance of the Herglotz variational problem. Action-dependent Lagrangians lead to dissipative dynamics, which cannot be…
We provide a complete classification of all abelian gauge invariant $p$-form theories with equations of motion depending only on the second derivative of the field---the $p$-form analogues of the Galileon scalar field theory. We construct…
We explore field theories of a single p-form with equations of motions of order strictly equal to two and gauge invariance. We give a general method for the classification of such theories which are extensions to the p-forms of the Galileon…
We show that scalar, 0-form, Galileon actions --models whose field equations contain only second derivatives-- can be generalized to arbitrary even p-forms. More generally, they need not even depend on a single form, but may involve mixed p…
The Universal Field Equations, recently constructed as examples of higher dimensional dynamical systems which admit an infinity of inequivalent Lagrangians are shown to be linearised by a Legendre transformation. This establishes the…
New, gauge-independent, second-order Lagrangian for the motion of classical, charged test particles is used to derive the corresponding Hamiltonian formulation. For this purpose a Hamiltonian description of the theories derived from the…
The gradient-flow dynamics of an arbitrary geometric quantity is derived using a generalization of Darcy's Law. We consider flows in both Lagrangian and Eulerian formulations. The Lagrangian formulation includes a dissipative modification…
We use a description based on differential forms to systematically explore the space of scalar-tensor theories of gravity. Within this formalism, we propose a basis for the scalar sector at the lowest order in derivatives of the field and…
The purpose of this article is to initiate a study of a class of Lorentz invariant, yet tractable, Lagrangian Field Theories which may be viewed as an extension of the Klein-Gordon Lagrangian to many scalar fields in a novel manner. These…