Momentum Maps and Classical Relativistic Fields. Part I: Covariant Field Theory

TL;DR

This paper introduces a covariant geometric framework for classical field theories, linking constraints, gauge symmetries, and conservation laws using symplectic geometry and the energy-momentum map.

Contribution

It develops the foundational covariant Lagrangian and Hamiltonian formalisms for classical fields, emphasizing the role of energy-momentum maps in understanding gauge symmetries.

Findings

Established covariant Lagrangian and Hamiltonian formalisms on jet bundles and multisymplectic manifolds

Connected symmetries and conservation laws via covariant momentum maps

Provided a geometric understanding of constraints and gauge transformations in field theories

Abstract

This is the first paper of a five part work in which we study the Lagrangian and Hamiltonian structure of classical field theories with constraints. Our goal is to explore some of the connections between initial value constraints and gauge transformations in such theories (either relativistic or not). To do this, in the course of these four papers, we develop and use a number of tools from symplectic and multisymplectic geometry. Of central importance in our analysis is the notion of the ``energy-momentum map'' associated to the gauge group of a given classical field theory. We hope to demonstrate that many different and apparently unrelated facets of field theories can be thereby tied together and understood in an essentially new way. In Part I we develop some of the basic theory of classical fields from a spacetime covariant viewpoint. We begin with a study of the covariant Lagrangian and Hamiltonian formalisms, on jet bundles and multisymplectic manifolds, respectively. Then we discuss symmetries, conservation laws, and Noether's theorem in terms of ``covariant momentum maps.''