1998/12/02 by F. J. de Urries, F. J. de Urríes, de Urries, F. J. +2
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Physics and Astronomy · #Black Holes and Theoretical Physics #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #FOS: Physical sciences #Geophysics and Gravity Measurements #High Energy Physics - Theory (hep-th) #hep-th
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.hep-th/9812020
17 pages, Plain TeX
arxiv created 1998/12/02 · openalex publication_date 1998/12/02 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
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 involving Lagrange multipliers and new fields. Notwithstanding the intrinsic non-covariance of the Dirac's procedure used to deal with the constraints, the Lorentz invariance is recovered at the end. We develope this new setting for a simple scalar model and then its applications to generalized electrodynamics and higher-derivative gravity are outlined. This method is better suited than Ostrogradski's for a generalization to 2n-derivative theories.