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Ostrogradsky's theorem on Hamiltonian instability

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Woodard, Richard·2015·Scholarpedia

Abstract

Ostrogradsky's construction of a Hamiltonian formalism for nondegenerate higher derivative Lagrangians is reviewed. The resulting instability imposes by far the most powerful restriction on fundamental, interacting, continuum Lagrangian field theories. A discussion is given of the problems raised by attempts to evade this restriction.

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Metadata

Authors
Woodard, R.
Venue
Scholarpedia
Publisher
Scholarpedia
Published
2015
Volume
10
Issue
8
Pages
32243
ISSN
1941-6016 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W1261499239
Cited by
552
References
0
FWCI
21.99
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
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CoChat. (2026). Citation check: Ostrogradsky's theorem on Hamiltonian instability. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.4249/scholarpedia.32243
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Woodard, R. (2015). Ostrogradsky's theorem on Hamiltonian instability. Scholarpedia. https://doi.org/10.4249/scholarpedia.32243

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