Are nonlocal Lagrangian systems fatally unstable?

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Heredia, Carlos, Llosa, Josep
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Heredia, Carlos
Llosa, Josep
author_facet Heredia, Carlos
Llosa, Josep
contents We prove that higher-derivative and genuinely nonlocal Lagrangian systems can be Lyapunov-stable even when their Hamiltonians lack a lower bound. Explicit free and coupled Pais-Uhlenbeck oscillators, together with a genuine nonlocal model, are analysed to identify the precise conditions under which stability holds. These counterexamples point out the logical gap in the "Ostrogradsky instability" claims and provide benchmarks for constructing efficient stable higher-derivative theories.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2403_19777
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Are nonlocal Lagrangian systems fatally unstable?
Heredia, Carlos
Llosa, Josep
High Energy Physics - Theory
Mathematical Physics
We prove that higher-derivative and genuinely nonlocal Lagrangian systems can be Lyapunov-stable even when their Hamiltonians lack a lower bound. Explicit free and coupled Pais-Uhlenbeck oscillators, together with a genuine nonlocal model, are analysed to identify the precise conditions under which stability holds. These counterexamples point out the logical gap in the "Ostrogradsky instability" claims and provide benchmarks for constructing efficient stable higher-derivative theories.
title Are nonlocal Lagrangian systems fatally unstable?
topic High Energy Physics - Theory
Mathematical Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.19777