Modified Hamiltonian formalism for higher-derivative theories

Understand

The alternative version of Hamiltonian formalism for higher-derivative theories is proposed.

• As compared with the standard Ostrogradski approach it has the following advantages: (i) the Lagrangian, when expressed in terms of new variables yields proper equations of motion; no additional Lagrange multipliers are necessary (ii) the Legendre transformation can be performed in a straightforward way provided the Lagrangian is nonsingular in Ostrogradski sense.
• The generalization to singular Lagrangians as well as field theory are presented.