Noether currents and charges for Maxwell-like Lagrangians

DOI10.1088/0305-4470/36/33/310zbMATH Open1070.70016arXivmath-ph/0307003OpenAlexW3105693081MaRDI QIDQ4452523FDOQ4452523

Authors: Yakov Itin 

Publication date: 1 March 2004

Published in: Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and General (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: Hilbert-Noether theorem states that a current associated to diffeomorphism invariance of a Lagrangian vanishes on shell modulo a divergence of an arbitrary superpotential. Application of the Noether procedure to physical Lagrangians yields, however, meaningful (and measurable) currents. The well known solution to this ``paradox is to involve the variation of the metric tensor. Such procedure, for the field considered on a fixed (flat) background, is sophisticated logically (one need to introduce the variation of a fixed field) and formal. We analyze the Noether procedure for a generic diffeomorphism invariant $p$-form field model. We show that the Noether current of the field considered on a variable background coincides with the current treated in a fixed geometry. Consistent description of the canonical energy-momentum current is possible only if the dynamics of the geometry (gravitation) is taken into account. However, even the ``truncated consideration yields the proper expression. We examine the examples of the free $p$-form gauge field theory, the GR in the coframe representation and the metric-free electrodynamics. Although, the variation of a metric tensor is not acceptable in the latter case, the Noether procedure yields the proper result.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/math-ph/0307003

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zbMATH Keywords

geometry of manifoldnon-dynamical coframe

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Applications of differential geometry to physics (53Z05) Differential geometric methods (tensors, connections, symplectic, Poisson, contact, Riemannian, nonholonomic, etc.) for problems in mechanics (70G45) Symmetries and conservation laws in mechanics of particles and systems (70S10)

Cited In (10)

• Noether currents for BF gravity
• VARIATIONALLY EQUIVALENT PROBLEMS AND VARIATIONS OF NOETHER CURRENTS
• Extracting the Maxwell charge from the Wheeler-deWitt equation
• Is the Lorentz signature of the metric of spacetime electromagnetic in origin?
• GAUGE-NATURAL NOETHER CURRENTS AND CONNECTION FIELDS
• Noether currents for the Teukolsky master equation
• Moufang Transformations and Noether Currents
• On the Lagrangian theory for rotating charge in the Maxwell field
• The dynamic differential forms of the Klein-Gordon field and the conformal group
• Noether charges, Brown-York quasilocal energy, and related topics.

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