Related papers: Revisiting the Hamilton theory for second order La…
This paper discusses the implementation of diffeomorphism invariance in purely Hamiltonian formulations of General Relativity. We observe that, if a constrained Hamiltonian formulation derives from a manifestly covariant Lagrangian, the…
Motivated by the possibility of radiation driven instabilities in rotating magnetic stars, we study the stability properties of general linear perturbations of a stationary and axisymmetric, infinitely conducting perfect fluid configuration…
The Helmholtz conditions are necessary and sufficient conditions for a system of second order differential equations to be variational, that is, equivalent to a system of Euler-Lagrange equations for a regular Lagrangian. On the other hand,…
We consider all degenerate scalar-tensor theories that depend quadratically on second order derivatives of a scalar field, which we have identified in a previous work. These theories, whose degeneracy in general ensures the absence of…
In this paper, we present a generalization of a Hamilton--Jacobi theory to higher order implicit differential equations. We propose two different backgrounds to deal with higher order implicit Lagrangian theories: the Ostrogradsky approach…
We derive the discrete version of the classical Helmholtz condition. Precisely, we state a theorem characterizing second order finite differences equations admitting a Lagrangian formulation. Moreover, in the affirmative case, we provide…
The canonical structure of theories whose Lagrangian contains higher powers of time derivatives is often obscured by the nonlinear relationship between the velocities and momenta. We use the Dirac formalism and define a generalized Legendre…
Different routes towards the canonical formulation of a classical theory result in different canonically equivalent Hamiltonians, while their quantum counterparts are related through appropriate unitary transformation. However, for…
The Hamiltonian dynamics of a single particle in a rotating plasma column, interacting with an magnetic multipole is perturbatively solved for up to second order, using the method of Lie transformations. First, the exact Hamiltonian is…
Previous work in the literature has studied the Hamiltonian structure of an R-squared model of gravity with torsion in a closed Friedmann-Robertson-Walker universe. Within the framework of Dirac's theory, torsion is found to lead to a…
We show that the De Donder form for second order gravity, defined in terms of Ostrogradski's version of the Legendre transformation applied to all independent variables, is globally defined by its local coordinate descriptions. It is a…
The Lie product and the order relation are viewed as defining structures for Hamiltonian dynamical systems. Their admissible combinations are singled out by the requirement that the group of the Lie automorphisms be contained in the group…
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…
An alternate Hamiltonian H different from Ostrogradski's one is found for the Lagrangian L = L(q, \dot q, \ddot q). We add a suitable divergence to L and insert a=q and b=\ddot q. Contrary to other approaches no constraint is needed because…
The paper analyzes a Lagrangian system which is controlled by directly assigning some of the coordinates as functions of time, by means of frictionless constraints. In a natural system of coordinates, the equations of motions contain terms…
The Hamiltonian formulation for the mechanical systems with reparametrization-invariant Lagrangians, depending on the worldline external curvatures is given, which is based on the use of moving frame. A complete sets of constraints are…
Making use of the modern techniques of non-holonomic geometry and constrained variational calculus, a revisitation of Ostrogradsky's Hamiltonian formulation of the evolution equations determined by a Lagrangian of order >= 2 in the…
Electromagnetism, the strong and the weak interaction are commonly formulated as gauge theories in a Lagrangian description. In this paper we present an alternative formal derivation of U(1)-gauge theory in a manifestly covariant Hamilton…
We discuss a recently proposed variational principle for deriving the variational equations associated to any Lagrangian system. The principle gives simultaneously the Lagrange and the variational equations of the system. We define a new…
We consider a class of Lagrangian theories where part of the coordinates does not have any time derivatives in the Lagrange function (we call such coordinates degenerate). We advocate that it is reasonable to reconsider the conventional…