Lepage Equivalents and the Variational Bicomplex

Fuente: arXiv
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Autore principale: Saunders, David
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2023
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author Saunders, David
author_facet Saunders, David
contents We show how to construct, for a Lagrangian of arbitrary order, a Lepage equivalent satisfying the closure property: that the Lepage equivalent vanishes precisely when the Lagrangian is null. The construction uses a homotopy operator for the horizontal differential of the variational bicomplex. A choice of symmetric linear connection on the manifold of independent variables, and a global homotopy operator constructed using that connection, may then be used to extend any global Lepage equivalent to one satisfying the closure property. In the second part of the paper we investigate the rôle of vertical endomorphisms in constructing such Lepage equivalents. These endomorphisms may be used directly to construct local homotopy operators. Together with a symmetric linear connection they may also be used to construct global vertical tensors, and these define infinitesimal nonholonomic projections which in turn may be used to construct Lepage equivalents. We conjecture that these global vertical tensors may also be used to define global homotopy operators.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2309_01594
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Lepage Equivalents and the Variational Bicomplex
Saunders, David
Differential Geometry
58A10, 58A20, 83D05
We show how to construct, for a Lagrangian of arbitrary order, a Lepage equivalent satisfying the closure property: that the Lepage equivalent vanishes precisely when the Lagrangian is null. The construction uses a homotopy operator for the horizontal differential of the variational bicomplex. A choice of symmetric linear connection on the manifold of independent variables, and a global homotopy operator constructed using that connection, may then be used to extend any global Lepage equivalent to one satisfying the closure property. In the second part of the paper we investigate the rôle of vertical endomorphisms in constructing such Lepage equivalents. These endomorphisms may be used directly to construct local homotopy operators. Together with a symmetric linear connection they may also be used to construct global vertical tensors, and these define infinitesimal nonholonomic projections which in turn may be used to construct Lepage equivalents. We conjecture that these global vertical tensors may also be used to define global homotopy operators.
title Lepage Equivalents and the Variational Bicomplex
topic Differential Geometry
58A10, 58A20, 83D05
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2309.01594