The polysymplectic Hamiltonian formalism in field theory and calculus of variations. I: The local case (Q2368022)

The author gives a geometric Hamiltonian formalism for field theories. The crucial device is the introduction of a vector-valued generalization of a symplectic form, called a polysymplectic form. Much of the paper is devoted to the generalization of the basic components of Hamiltonian mechanics to the polysymplectic setting; Hamilton's equations, Lagrangian formulation, canonical transformations, moment maps, and reduction are all given polysymplectic generalizations. Polysymplectic mechanics is justified by its application to field theory. Classical mechanics on a configuration space \(Q\) can be considered to be a \(Q\)-valued field theory on the one-dimensional space \(\mathbb{R}\). For higher-dimensional field theories this paper considers jets of maps from \(\mathbb{R}^ n\) into \(Q\). The dual of this jet bundle, called the cojet bundle, carries a canonical polysymplectic structure. This is the field-theoretic generalization of the canonical symplectic structure on the cotangent bundle used in classical mechanics. Hamilton's equations on the cojet bundle give rise to partial differential equations in the \(\mathbb{R}^ n\)-variables, the field equations. This paper deals only with the local case, fields defined on an open set in \(\mathbb{R}^ n\). The global case, in which fields are sections of a fiber bundle, is promised as a sequel.