Skip to main content

All Questions

Filter by
Sorted by
Tagged with
25 votes
2 answers
2k views

Functional approach vs jet approach to Lagrangian field theory

Context: I am a PhD student in theoretical physics with higher-than-average education on differential geometry. I am trying to understand Lagrangian and Hamiltonian field theories and related concepts ...
3 votes
0 answers
76 views

Surface terms in the calculus of variations on jet bundles

Let $\pi:N\rightarrow M$ be a fibered manifold with $m=\dim M$ and $m+n=\dim N$. The variational bicomplex on the infinite jet space $J^\infty(\pi)$ is denoted $(\Omega^{k,l}(\pi),\delta,\mathbf d)$ ...
8 votes
2 answers
644 views

In which sense are Euler-Lagrange PDE's on fiber bundles quasi-linear?

In what follows, all manifolds are smooth, Hausdorff, paracompact, connected and oriented, and all maps between any two of them are assumed to be smooth. Let $\pi:E\rightarrow M$ be a fiber bundle ...