Related papers: On the viability of higher order theories

Higher order derivative theories, generally suffer from instabilities, known as Ostrogradsky instabilities. This issue can be resolved by removing any existing degeneracy present in such theories. We consider a model involving at most…

Newtons second law, Schrodingers equation and Maxwells equations are all theories composed of at most second-time derivatives. Indeed, it is not often we need to take the time derivative of the acceleration. So why are we not seeing more…

It is known that any nondegenerate Lagrangian containing time derivative terms higher than first order suffers from the Ostrogradsky instability, pathological excitation of positive and negative energy degrees of freedom. We show that,…

Most of the laws of Nature involve derivatives up to the second order. Ostrogradski was the first to seek a formulation of the equations of higher-order derivatives. He extended Hamilton's equations by considering Lagrangians that depend on…

In the context of classical mechanics, we study the conditions under which higher-order derivative theories can evade the so-called Ostrogradsky instability. More precisely, we consider general Lagrangians with second order time…

We review the fate of the Ostrogradsky ghost in higher-order theories. We start by recalling the original Ostrogradsky theorem and illustrate, in the context of classical mechanics, how higher-derivatives Lagrangians lead to unbounded…

The Ostrogradsky theorem states that any classical Lagrangian that contains time derivatives higher than the first order and is nondegenerate with respect to the highest-order derivatives leads to an unbounded Hamiltonian which linearly…

Ostrogradsky instability generally appears in nondegenerate higher-order derivative theories and this issue can be resolved by removing any existing degeneracy present in such theories. We consider an action involving terms that are at most…

Theories with higher order time derivatives generically suffer from ghost-like instabilities, known as Ostrogradski instabilities. This fate can be avoided by considering "degenerate" Lagrangians, whose kinetic matrix cannot be inverted,…

Onsager and Machlup proposed a second order variational-principle in order to include inertial effects into the Langevin-equation, giving a Lagrangian with second order derivatives in time. This but violates Ostrogradysky's theorem, which…

The problems that are connected with Lagrangians which depend on higher order derivatives (namely additional degrees of freedom, unbound energy from below, etc.) are absent if effective Lagrangians are considered because the equations of…

Classical second order models of pedestrian dynamics, like the social-force model, suffer from various unrealistic behaviors in the dynamics, e.g. backward motion, oscillations and overlapping of pedestrians. These effects are not related…

In the generalized Hamiltonian formalism by Dirac, the method of constructing the generator of local-symmetry transformations for systems with first- and second-class constraints (without restrictions on the algebra of constraints) is…

Using Dirac's approach to constrained dynamics, the Hamiltonian formulation of regular higher order Lagrangians is developed. The conventional description of such systems due to Ostrogradsky is recovered. However, unlike the latter, the…

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…

The Hamilton theories for higher orders classical Lagrange functions result on a well known Ostrogradski's instabilities. In this work, we propose a different definition for the second order canonical momentum and obtain a new set of second…

Ostrogradsky's construction of a Hamiltonian formalism for nondegenerate higher derivative Lagrangians is reviewed. The resulting instability imposes by far the most powerful restriction on fundamental, interacting, continuum Lagrangian…

Interactions are explored through the observation of the dynamics of particles. On the classical level the basic underlying assumption in that scheme is that Newton's second law holds. Relaxing the validity of this axiom by, e.g., allowing…

In this Thesis we develop the geometric formulations for higher-order autonomous and non-autonomous dynamical systems, and second-order field theories. In all cases, the physical information of the system is given in terms of a Lagrangian…

We present a complete theory of higher-order autonomous contact mechanics, which allows us to describe higher-order dynamical systems with dissipation. The essential tools for the theory are the extended higher-order tangent bundles, ${\rm…