synthetic differential geometry
Introductions
from point-set topology to differentiable manifolds
geometry of physics: coordinate systems, smooth spaces, manifolds, smooth homotopy types, supergeometry
Differentials
Tangency
The magic algebraic facts
Theorems
Axiomatics
Models
differential equations, variational calculus
Chern-Weil theory, ∞-Chern-Weil theory
Cartan geometry (super, higher)
algebraic quantum field theory (perturbative, on curved spacetimes, homotopical)
quantum mechanical system, quantum probability
interacting field quantization
Throughout, let
be a smooth manifold of dimension , thought of as spacetime;
a fiber bundle thought of as a field bundle
Let be a field bundle. Then an evolutionary vector field on is “variational vertical vector field” on , hence a smooth bundle homomorphism out of the jet bundle (def. )
to the vertical tangent bundle of .
In the special case that the field bundle is a trivial vector bundle over Minkowski spacetime as in example , this means that an evolutionary vector field is a tangent vector field (example ) on of the special form
where the coefficients are general smooth functions on the jet bundle (while the cmponents are tangent vectors along the field coordinates , but not along the spacetime coordinates and not along the jet coordinates ).
We write
for the space of evolutionary vector fields, regarded as a module over the -algebra
of smooth functions on the jet bundle.
An evolutionary vector field (def. ) describes an infinitesimal change of field values depending on, possibly, the point in spacetime and the values of the field and all its derivatives (locally to finite order, by prop. ).
This induces a corresponding infinitesimal change of the derivatives of the fields, called the prolongation of the evolutionary vector field:
(prolongation of evolutionary vector field)
Let be a fiber bundle.
Given an evolutionary vector field on (def. ) there is a unique tangent vector field on the jet bundle such that
agrees on field coordinates (as opposed to jet coordinates) with :
which means in the special case that is a trivial vector bundle over Minkowski spacetime that is of the form
contraction with (def. ) anti-commutes with the total spacetime derivative (def. ):
In particular Cartan's homotopy formula (prop. ) for the Lie derivative holds with respect to the variational derivative :
Explicitly, in the special case that the field bundle is a trivial vector bundle over Minkowski spacetime (example ) is given by
It is sufficient to prove the coordinate version of the statement. We prove this by induction over the maximal jet order . Notice that the coefficient of in is given by the contraction (def. ).
Similarly (at “”) the component of is given by . But by the second condition above this vanishes:
Moreover, the coefficient of in is fixed by the first condition above to be
This shows the statement for . Now assume that the statement is true up to some . Observe that the coefficients of all are fixed by the contractions with . For this we find again from the second condition and using as well as the induction assumption that
This shows that satisfying the two conditions given exists uniquely.
Finally formula (3) for the Lie derivative follows from the second of the two conditions with Cartan's homotopy formula (prop. ) together with .
(evolutionary vector fields form a Lie algebra)
Let be a fiber bundle. For any two evolutionary vector fields , on (def. ) the Lie bracket of tangent vector fields of their prolongations , (def. ) is itself the prolongation of a unique evolutionary vector field .
This defines the structure of a Lie algebra on evolutionary vector fields.
It is clear that is still vertical, therefore, by prop. , it is sufficient to show that contraction with this vector field (def. ) anti-commutes with the horizontal derivative , hence that .
Now is an operator that sends vertical 1-forms to horizontal 1-forms and vanishes on horizontal 1-forms. Therefore it is sufficient to see that this operator in fact also vanishes on all vertical 1-forms. But for this it is sufficient that it commutes with the vertical derivative. This we check by Cartan calculus, using and , by assumption:
Now given an evolutionary vector field, we want to consider the flow that it induces on the space of field histories:
(flow of field histories along evolutionary vector field)
Let be a field bundle and let be an evolutionary vector field (def. ) such that the ordinary flow of its prolongation (prop. )
exists on the jet bundle (e.g. if the order of derivatives of field coordinates that it depends on is bounded).
For a collection of field histories (hence a plot of the space of field histories) the flow of through is the smooth function
whose unique factorization through the space of jets of field histories (i.e. the image of jet prolongation)
takes a plot of the real line (regarded as a super smooth set), to the plot
of the smooth space of sections of the jet bundle.
(That indeed flows jet prolongations again to jet prolongations is due to its defining relation to the evolutionary vector field from prop. .)
(infinitesimal symmetries of the Lagrangian and conserved currents)
Let be a Lagrangian field theory (def. ).
Then
an infinitesimal symmetry of the Lagrangian is a variation (def. ) which arises as the prolongation (prop. ) of an evolutionary vector field (def. ) such that the Lie derivative of the Lagrangian density along is a total spacetime derivative
an on-shell conserved current is a horizontal -form whose total spacetime derivative vanishes on the prolonged shell (?)
Let be a Lagrangian field theory (def. ).
If is an infinitesimal symmetry of the Lagrangian (def. ) with , then
is an on-shell conserved current (def. ), for a presymplectic potential (?) from def. .
By Cartan's homotopy formula for the Lie derivative (prop. ) and the decomposition of the variational derivative (?) and the fact that contraction with the prolongtion of an evolutionary vector field vanishes on horizontal differential forms (1) and anti-commutes with the horizontal differential (2), by def. , we may re-express the defining equation for the symmetry as follows:
which is equivalent to
Since, by definition of the shell , the form vanishes on this yields the claim.
(flow along infinitesimal symmetry of the Lagrangian preserves on-shell space of field histories)
Let be a Lagrangian field theory (def. ).
For an infinitesimal symmetry of the Lagrangian (def. ) the flow on the space of field histories (example ) that it induces by def. preserves the space of on-shell field histories (from prop. ):
By def. a field history is on-shell precisely if its jet prolongation (def. ) factors through the shell (?). Hence by def. the statement is equivalently that the ordinary flow (prop. ) of (def. ) on the jet bundle preserves the shell. This in turn means that it preserves the vanishing locus of the Euler-Lagrange form .
For this it is sufficient to show that the derivative of the components of the Euler-Lagrange form along vanish on the prolonged shell
This is the statement of Olver 95, theorem 5.53.
Last revised on October 9, 2023 at 16:21:36. See the history of this page for a list of all contributions to it.