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Hierarchies of Lagrangians of degree two, each only partly determined by the choice of leading terms and with some coefficients remaining free, are considered. The free coefficients they contain satisfy the most general differential…

We examine the variational and conformal structures of higher order theories of gravity which are derived from a metric-connection Lagrangian that is an arbitrary function of the curvature invariants. We show that the constrained first…

In this paper I shall consider field theories in a space of four-dimensions which have field variables consisting of the components of a metric tensor and scalar field. The field equations of these scalar-tensor field theories will be…

The Hamiltonian counterpart of classical Lagrangian field theory is covariant Hamiltonian field theory where momenta correspond to derivatives of fields with respect to all world coordinates. In particular, classical Lagrangian and…

Locally variational systems of differential equations on smooth manifolds, having certain de Rham cohomology group trivial, automatically possess a global Lagrangian. This important result due to Takens is, how-ever, of sheaf-theoretic…

We present a possible generalization of the exterior differential calculus, based on the operator d such that d^3=0, but d^2\not=0. The first and second order differentials generate an associative algebra; we shall suppose that there are no…

The gauging of the q-Poincar\'e algebra of ref. hep-th 9312179 yields a non-commutative generalization of the Einstein-Cartan lagrangian. We prove its invariance under local q-Lorentz rotations and, up to a total derivative, under…

The Lagrangian formalism for variational problem for second-order delay ordinary differential equations (DODEs) is developed. The Noether-type operator identities and theorems for DODEs of second order are presented. Algebraic construction…

We carry out the extension of the covariant Ostrogradski method to fermionic field theories. Higher-derivative Lagrangians reduce to second order differential ones with one explicit independent field for each degree of freedom.

The operators of fractional calculus come in many different types, which can be categorised into general classes according to their nature and properties. We conduct a formal study of the class known as weighted fractional calculus and its…

One of the difficulties encountered when studying physical theories in discrete space-time is that of describing the underlying continuous symmetries (like Lorentz, or Galilei invariance). One of the ways of addressing this difficulty is to…

The Horndeski theory is known as the most general scalar-tensor theory with second-order field equations. In this paper, we explore the bi-scalar extension of the Horndeski theory. Following Horndeski's approach, we determine all the…

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 classify invariant Lagrangians of the form $L(g_{ij},g_{ij,k},g_{ij,kl},D_I,D_{I,j})$ depending at most quadratically on the variables $g_{ij,k},g_{ij,kl}$ and $D_I,D_{I,j}$, where $g$ is a Lorentz metric and $D$ is a tensor field of…

Shortcomings of Dirac's constrained analysis in the context of fourth order Pais-Uhlenbeck oscillator action and the appearance of badly affected phase-space Hamiltonian for a generalized fourth order oscillator action, following…

We present a new class of solutions for the inverse problem in the calculus of variations in arbitrary dimension $n$. This is the problem of determining the existence and uniqueness of Lagrangians for systems of $n$ second order ordinary…

We introduce an equation named matrix Dirac equation which can be considered as a generalization of Dirac equation for an electron. The liaison between matrix Dirac equation and standard Dirac equation is discussed. We write a lagrangian…

The covariant phase space of a Lagrangian field theory is the solution space of the associated Euler-Lagrange equations. It is, in principle, a nice environment for covariant quantization of a Lagrangian field theory. Indeed, it is…

Building on the Utiyama principle we formulate an approach to Lagrangian field theory in which exterior covariant differentials of vector-valued forms replace partial derivatives, in the sense that they take up the role played by the latter…

We give a proper fractional extension of the classical calculus of variations by considering variational functionals with a Lagrangian depending on a combined Caputo fractional derivative and the classical derivative. Euler-Lagrange…