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Sunday 1 May 2016

Relativistic Field theory - Euler Lagrange equation

To understand some of the advanced theories in monopoles and etc., we will take a look on the relativistic field theory.

Classically, the motion of a particle is understood by solving for the position of the particle as a function of time. Where else the fields are defined over a region in space as 
$\phi(x_i)\,\,\,i=0,1,2,3$ where $x_0$ is the time component taken together with the space coordinates.These fields give all the information we would like to know about the system. 

In classical method, the Lagrangian is defined as a function of coordinates and its time derivatives. Since, we take here time as one of the components, the new Lagrangian for our fields is a function of both $\phi$ and its derivatives about each of the components. 
We can obtain our new Euler Lagrange equation as,
$$ \delta \int\,L(\partial_\mu\phi,\phi) d\tau = 0 $$ where the L here is called the Lagrangian density and $d\tau = dx_0 \,dx_1 \,dx_2 \,dx_3$
On expansion, $$ \int\,\left(\frac{\partial{L}}{\partial(\partial_\mu\phi)}\delta(\partial_\mu\phi)+\frac{\partial{L}}{\partial\phi}\delta(\phi)\right) d\tau = 0$$ using $\delta(\partial_\mu\phi) = \partial_\mu(\delta\phi)$ and product rule we get, $$ \int \left(\frac{\partial}{\partial{x^\mu}}\left(\frac{\partial{L}}{\partial(\partial_\mu\phi) }\delta\phi\right) - \frac{\partial}{\partial{x^\mu}}\left(\frac{\partial{L}}{\partial(\partial_\mu\phi)}\right)\delta\phi + \frac{\partial{L}}{\partial\phi}\delta{\phi}\right) d\tau = 0 $$
The first term on integrating and applying the condition $\delta\phi$ becomes zero at the end points becomes zero. Taking out the negative sign, $$\int\left(\frac{\partial}{\partial{x^\mu}}\left(\frac{\partial{L}}{\partial(\partial_\mu\phi)}\right)-\frac{\partial{L}}{\partial\phi}\right)\delta\phi\,d\tau = 0$$
gives us the final Euler-Lagrange equation for relativistic field theory, $$ \frac{\partial}{\partial{x^\mu}}\left(\frac{\partial{L}}{\partial(\partial_\mu\phi)}\right) - \frac{\partial{L}}{\partial\phi} = 0 $$
It needn't to be only one function $\phi$ but more functions of $\phi_j$.
Let us consider in specific, the Klein Gordon equation which describes the motion of particles with spin zero. The equation is developed from the general relativistic energy momentum relation by the substitution of corresponding operators as, $$ E = i\hbar\frac{\partial}{\partial{t}}\\ \vec{p} = -i\hbar\nabla$$ acting on a scalar field $\phi(x,t)$ to give, $$ -\hbar^2\frac{\partial^2\phi}{\partial{t^2}} = -\hbar^2c^2\nabla^2\phi +m^2c^4\phi$$ $\rightarrow$$$\hbar^2c^2\left[\nabla^2\phi-\frac{1}{c^2}\frac{\partial^2\phi}{\partial{t^2}} \right]= m^2c^4\phi$$ $\rightarrow$$$\left[\Box+\frac{m^2c^2}{\hbar^2}\right]\phi(x_i)=0$$ where the d'alembertian operator is defined here as $$ \Box =  \frac{1}{c^2}\partial_t^2 - \nabla^2$$

We know that, $$p^\mu{p_\mu} = -\hbar^2 \partial^\mu\partial_\mu = -\hbar^2\Box$$ where the minkowski metric is given by,$ g_{\mu\nu}$ = diagonal(1,-1,-1,-1), and thus we have, $$ \left(\partial^\mu\partial_\mu + \frac{m^2c^2}{\hbar^2}\right)\phi = 0 $$ which is known as Klein Gordon Equation.

This can be derived from the Lagrangian, $$ L = \frac{1}{2}(\partial_\mu\phi)(\partial^\mu\phi) - \frac{1}{2}\left(\frac{mc}{\hbar}\right)^2\phi^2 $$ 

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