Related papers: The Dirac Conjecture and the Non-uniqueness of Lag…
Dirac's approach to gauge symmetries is discussed. We follow closely the steps that led him from his conjecture concerning the generators of gauge transformations {\it at a given time} --to be contrasted with the common view of gauge…
The Dirac-Bergmann algorithm for the Hamiltonian analysis of constrained systems is a nice and powerful tool, widely used for quantization and non-perturbative counting of degrees of freedom. However, certain aspects of its application to…
The gauge symmetries of a general dynamical system can be systematically obtained following either a Hamiltonean or a Lagrangean approach. In the former case, these symmetries are generated, according to Dirac's conjecture, by the first…
It is shown that any singular Lagrangian theory: 1) can be formulated without the use of constraints by introducing a Clairaut-type version of the Hamiltonian formalism; 2) leads to a special kind of nonabelian gauge theory which is similar…
An extension of the Legendre transform to non-convex functions with vanishing Hessian as a mix of envelope and general solutions of the Clairaut equation is proposed. Applying this to systems with constraints, the procedure of finding a…
We analyze a singular theory with first class constraints of an arbitrary stage. Relation among the formulations of the constrained system in terms of complete and extended Hamiltonians is clarified. We replace the extended Hamiltonian…
The gauge symmetries of a general dynamical system can be systematically obtained following either a Hamiltonean or a Lagrangean approach. In the former case, these symmetries are generated, according to Dirac's conjecture, by the first…
It is shown that the Dirac approach to Hamiltonization of singular theories can be slightly modified in such a way that primary Dirac constraints do not appear in the process. According to the modified scheme, Hamiltonian formulation of…
We analyze a structure of the singular Lagrangian $L$ with first and second class constraints of an arbitrary stage. We show that there exist an equivalent Lagrangian (called the extended Lagrangian $\tilde L$) that generates all the…
We derive the Hamilton equations of motion for a constrained system in the form given by Dirac, by a limiting procedure, starting from the Lagrangean for an unconstrained system. We thereby ellucidate the role played by the primary…
The Dirac-Bergmann algorithm is a recipe for converting a theory with a singular Lagrangian into a constrained Hamiltonian system. Constrained Hamiltonian systems include gauge theories -- general relativity, electromagnetism, Yang Mills,…
Using well known Lagrangean techniques for uncovering the gauge symmetries of a Lagrangean, we derive the transformation laws for the phase space variables corresponding to local symmetries of the Hamilton equations of motion. These…
The jet bundle description of time-dependent mechanics is revisited. The constraint algorithm for singular Lagrangians is discussed and an exhaustive description of the constraint functions is given. By means of auxiliary connections we…
Unfortunately, the Hamiltonian mechanics of degenerate Lagrangian systems is usually presented as a mere recipe of Dirac, with no explanation as to how it works. Then it comes to discussing conjectures of whether all primary constraints…
We extend Hamilton-Jacobi theory to Lagrange-Dirac (or implicit Lagrangian) systems, a generalized formulation of Lagrangian mechanics that can incorporate degenerate Lagrangians as well as holonomic and nonholonomic constraints. We refer…
A formulation of singular classical theories (determined by degenerate Lagrangians) without constraints is presented. A partial Hamiltonian formalism in the phase space having an initially arbitrary number of momenta (which can be smaller…
The general conditions for the applicability of the Faddeev-Jackiw approach to gauge theories are studied. When the constraints are effective a new proof in the Lagrangian framework of the equivalence between this method and the Dirac…
The elements of the contrained dynamics algorithm in the De Donder-Weyl (DW) Hamiltonian theory for degenerate Lagrangian theories are discussed. A generalization of the Dirac bracket to the DW Hamiltonian theory with second class…
We present a unified approach to constrained implicit Lagrangian and Hamiltonian systems based on the introduced concept of Dirac algebroid. The latter is a certain almost Dirac structure associated with the Courant algebroid on the dual…
After recalling standard nonlinear port-Hamiltonian systems and their algebraic constraint equations, called here Dirac algebraic constraints, an extended class of port-Hamiltonian systems is introduced. This is based on replacing the…