Reducing the order of the Lagrangean for a classical field in curved space-time (Q2266499)

Consider a submersion \(\pi\) : \(S\to M\) and an affine connection \(\Gamma\) on the m-dimensional ''space-time'' manifold M. Then, there exists an intrinsic dilation vector field \(U_{\Gamma}\) on the jet space \(J^ N(M,S)\), which in turn defines a function on the cotangent bundle K of \(J^ N(M,S)\). The author further derives an intrinsic function on \(P=J^ 1(M,K)\). Assuming there is also a volume form on M, his main theorem states that an N-th order Lagrangian on S, i.e. a basic m-form on \(J^ N(M,S)\), can be mapped onto a first-order Lagrangian on K, which is linear in the derivatives and has the same extremals.