The structure of null Lagrangians

Peter J Olver, J. Sivaloganathan

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

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Abstract

It is said that L(x,u, Del u) is a null Lagrangian if and only if the corresponding integral functional E(u)= integral OmegaL(x,u, Del u) dx has the property that E(u+ phi )=E(u) For all phi in C0 infinity( Omega ), for any choice of u in C1( Omega ). In the homogeneous case, corresponding to L(x,u, Del u)= Phi ( Del u), it is known that a necessary and sufficient condition for L to be a null Lagrangian is that Phi ( Del u) is an affine combination of subdeterminants of Del u of all orders. The authors show that all inhomogeneous null Lagrangians may be constructed from these homogeneous ones by introducing appropriate potentials.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number005
Pages (from-to)389-398
Number of pages10
JournalNonlinearity
Volume1
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 1 1988

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