Geometric aspects of higher order variational principles on submanifolds (Q941629)

The present paper is devoted to the calculus of variations on the space of \(r\)-th order jets of submanifolds. The bundle of truncated total derivatives is used to represent Lagrangians, Euler-Lagrange and Helmholtz morphisms. Using such a point of view, a geometric (i.e., coordinate-free) formulation of variational problems on jets of submanifolds is introduced. The theory is illustrated by two examples: the minimal submanifolds equation and the equation of relativistic particle motion.