On the structure of Hamiltonian operators in field theory (Q1087207)

In finite dimensional mechanics Hamiltonian operators are introduced in the following way: Let \(F=C^{\infty}(M)\) denote the ring of \({\mathbb{R}}\) valued \(C^{\infty}\)-functions on a manifold M and let D(M) denote the F-module of \(C^{\infty}\)-vector fields on M. Then an operator \(T: F\to D(M)\) is called Hamiltonian, iff \(\{f,g\}=T(f)g\) defines a Poisson bracket structure on M. A Hamiltonian operator, which is nondegenerate (i.e. \(T(f)_ x=0\) iff \(d_ xf=0)\) determines a symplectic structure on M and vice versa. Two nondegenerate Hamiltonian operators can be transformed into each other locally by a (local) diffeomorphism, iff their underlying manifolds have the same dimension (this is some version of Darboux's lemma). In the present paper the authors are concerned with the generalization of these concepts to the infinite dimensional case, i.e. to field theory. Here M has to be replaced by the set of local sections of some fibering \(\pi\) : \(E\to M\). The authors give a precise definition of what they mean by a Hamiltonian operator in this case, present some criteria for an operator to be Hamiltonian, and show that some kind of Darboux lemma holds in special cases. The present paper is self-contained and includes all the proofs; some of its results have been given already in earlier papers [the second author, Sov. Math., Dokl. 19, 790-794 (1978); translation from Dokl. Akad. Nauk SSSR 241, 18-21 (1978; Zbl 0421.70026), the first author, Sov. Math., Dokl. 27, 685-689 (1983); translation from Dokl. Akad. Nauk SSSR 270, 1033-1037 (1983; Zbl 0563.58013)] without proof.