Many physically important mechanical systems may be described with a Lie group $G$ as configuration space. According to the well-known Noether's theorem, underlying symmetries of the Lie group may be used to considerably reduce the complexity of the problems. However, these reduction techniques, used without care for general problems (waves, field theory), may lead to uncomfortable infinite dimensional spaces. As an alternative, the \emph{covariant} formulation allows to consider a finite dimensional configuration space by increasing the number of independent variables. But the geometric elements needed for reduction, adapted to the specificity of covariant problems which admit Lie groups as configuration space, are difficult to apprehend in the literature (some are even missing to our knowledge). To fill this gap, this article reconsiders the historical geometric construction made by E. Cartan in this particular "covariant Lie group" context. Thus, and it is the main interest of this work, the Poincaré-Cartan and multi-symplectic forms are obtained for a principal $G$ bundle. It allows to formulate the \emph{Euler-Poincaré equations} of motion and leads to a Noether's current form defined in the dual Lie algebra.
The problem of reduction of multisymplectic manifolds by the action of Lie groups is stated and discussed, as a previous step to give a fully covariant scheme of reduction for classical field theories with symmetries.
We analyze the inherent symmetries associated to the non-Abelian topological BF theory from the geometric and covariant perspectives of the Lagrangian and the multisymplectic formalisms. At the Lagrangian level, we classify the symmetries of the theory as natural and Noether symmetries and construct the associated Noether currents, while at the multisymplectic level the symmetries of the theory arise as covariant canonical transformations. These transformations allowed us to build within the multisymplectic approach, in a complete covariant way, the momentum maps which are analogous to the con…
We present a covariant multisymplectic formulation for the Einstein-Palatini (or Metric-Affine) model of General Relativity (without energy-matter sources). As it is described by a first-order affine Lagrangian (in the derivatives of the fields), it is singular and, hence, this is a gauge field theory with constraints. These constraints are obtained after applying a constraint algorithm to the field equations, both in the Lagrangian and the Hamiltonian formalisms. In order to do this, the covariant field equations must be written in a suitable geometrical way, using integrable distributions wh…
The analysis of the covariant brackets on the space of functions on the solutions to a variational problem in the framework of contact geometry initiated in the companion letter Ref.19 is extended to the case of the multisymplectic formulation of the free Klein-Gordon theory and of the free Schrödinger equation.
We present a covariant multisymplectic formulation for the Einstein-Hilbert model of General Relativity. As it is described by a second-order singular Lagrangian, this is a gauge field theory with constraints. The use of the unified Lagrangian-Hamiltonian formalism is particularly interesting when it is applied to these kinds of theories, since it simplifies the treatment of them; in particular, the implementation of the constraint algorithm, the retrieval of the Lagrangian description, and the construction of the covariant Hamiltonian formalism. In order to apply this algorithm to the covaria…
A novel reduction procedure for covariant classical field theories, reflecting the generalized symplectic reduction theory of Hamiltonian systems, is presented. The departure point of this reduction procedure consists in the choice of a submanifold of the manifold of solutions of the equations describing a field theory. Then, the covariance of the geometrical objects involved, will allow to define equations of motion on a reduced space. The computation of the canonical geometrical structure is performed neatly by using the geometrical framework provided by the multisymplectic description of co…
The first part of the series formulates the Einstein-Cartan theory in the covariant hamiltonian framework. The first section revises the general multisymplectic approach and introduces the notion of the d-jet bundles. Since the whole Standard Model Lagrangian (including gravity) can be written as the functional of the forms, the structure of the d-jet bundles is more appropriate for the covariant hamiltonian analysis than the standard jet bundle approach. The definition of the local covariant Poisson bracket on the space of covariant observables is recalled. The main goal of the work is to sho…
The multisymplectic formalism of field theories developed by many mathematicians over the last fifty years is extended in this work to deal with manifolds that have boundaries. In particular, we develop a multisymplectic framework for first order covariant Hamiltonian field theories on manifolds with boundaries. This work is a geometric fulfillment of Fock's characterization of field theories as it appears in recent work by Cattaneo, Mnev and Reshetikhin [Ca14]. This framework leads to a true geometric understanding of conventional choices for boundary conditions. For example, the boundary con…
This paper presents a "historical" formalism for dynamical systems, in its Hamiltonian version (Lagrangian version was presented in a previous paper). It is universal, in the sense that it applies equally well to time dynamics and to field theories on space-time. It is based on the notion of (Hamiltonian) histories, which are sections of the (extended) phase space bundle. It is developed in the space of sections, in contradistinction with the usual formalism which works in the bundle manifold. In field theories, the formalism remains covariant and does not require a spitting of space-time. It …
