Related papers: Ostrogradski Formalism for Higher-Derivative Scala…
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.
As an alternative to the covariant Ostrogradski method, we show that higher-derivative relativistic Lagrangian field theories can be reduced to second differential-order by writing them directly as covariant two-derivative theories…
As an alternative to the covariant Ostrogradski method, we show that higher-derivative relativistic Lagrangian field theories can be reduced to second differential-order by writing them directly as covariant two-derivative theories…
We present a method for the Hamiltonian formulation of field theories that are based on Lagrangians containing second derivatives. The new feature of our formalism is that all four partial derivatives of the field variables are initially…
As an example of what happens with physically relevant theories like effective gravity, we consider the covariant relativistic theory of a scalar field of arbitrarily higher differential order. A procedure based on the Legendre…
The alternative version of Hamiltonian formalism for higher-derivative theories is proposed. As compared with the standard Ostrogradski approach it has the following advantages: (i) the Lagrangian, when expressed in terms of new variables…
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…
The Ostrogradsky theorem implies that higher-derivative terms of a single mechanical variable are either trivial or lead to additional, ghost-like degrees of freedom. In this letter we systematically investigate how the introduction of…
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…
An alternative version of Hamiltonian formalism for higher-derivative theories is presented. It is related to the standard Ostrogradski approach by a canonical transformation. The advantage of the approach presented is that the Lagrangian…
By means of a simple scalar field theory it is demonstrated that the Lagrange formalism and Ostrogradsky's Hamilton formalism in the presence of higher derivatives, in general, do not lead to the same results. While the two approaches are…
The scalar field theory with higher derivatives is considered in the first order formalism. The field equation of the forth order describes scalar particles possessing two mass states. The first order relativistic wave equation in the…
We perform a Hamiltonian analysis of a large class of scalar-tensor Lagrangians which depend quadratically on the second derivatives of a scalar field. By resorting to a convenient choice of dynamical variables, we show that the Hamiltonian…
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…
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…
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,…
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…
We consider, in Minkowski spacetime, higher-order Maxwell Lagrangians with terms quadratic in the derivatives of the field strength tensor, and study their degrees of freedom. Using a 3+1 decomposition of these Lagrangians, we extract the…
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…
We review how the (absence of) Ostrogradsky instability manifests itself in theories with multiple fields. It has recently been appreciated that when multiple fields are present, the existence of higher derivatives may not automatically…