# Tag Info

9

Regardless of the context and the meaning of the symbols, both sides of the equation have perfectly the same units: they are dimensionless. The integral has units $js$ as you write, using your notation, but the functional derivative has the compensating units $1/(js)$ so the units cancel. To see that dimension of the functional derivative is $1/(js)$, one ...

7

If the functional derivative $$\tag{1} \frac{\delta F[\phi]}{\delta\phi^{\alpha}(x)}$$ exists (wrt. to a certain choice of boundary conditions), it obeys infinitesimally $$\tag{2}\delta F ~:=~ F[\phi+\delta\phi]- F[\phi] ~=~\int_M \!dx\sum_{\alpha\in J} \frac{\delta F[\phi]}{\delta\phi^{\alpha}(x)}\delta\phi^{\alpha}(x).$$ OP's functional integral ...

5

Contrary to your claim near the end of your question, I claim that the time-derivative of the field is being treated as an "independent" argument of the Lagrangian. I'll try to convince you of this by showing you how this independence leads to everything working out the way you think it should. Some of the key points are at the end, so please read all the ...

4

The physicist's derivative notation denotes the components of a Frechet derivative in the direction of the delta-function supported at $y$. This is one of those places where the habit of denoting the function $f$ by its value $f(x)$ gets confusing. It's somewhat clearer if you write $\delta_y$ for the delta function at $y$, and $$\frac{\delta F}{\delta ... 4 This answer can be view as a supplement to joshphysics' correct answer, possibly stressing slightly different things and using slightly different words. Before defining functional/variational derivatives in Lagrangian formalism, it is crucial to understand exactly which variables are independent of each other and which are not? In other words, which ... 4 A "functional" may also be a map of a function to another function. Hence in this case, L:\mathcal{F}\times\mathcal{F}\rightarrow\mathcal{F};(\Psi(t),\dot\Psi(t))\mapsto L[\Psi(t),\dot\Psi(t)], L maps functions in a function space \mathcal{F} into \mathcal{F} (this assumes that \Psi(t) is well enough controlled, and that L is not too exotic, for ... 3 It seems that OP is pondering the following. What happens in a field theory [in OP's case: GR] if spacetime M has a non-empty boundary \partial M\neq \emptyset, and we don't impose pertinent (e.g. Dirichlet) boundary conditions (BC) on the fields \phi^{\alpha}(x) [in OP's case: the metric tensor g_{\mu\nu}(x)]? I) Firstly, it should stressed ... 3 One way to see that considering the dependence of \dot{x} on x is problematic is as follows: x(t) maps a real number t to another real number x. So \dot{x}=dx/dt is the derivative of that map, meaning we take$$\lim_{\Delta t \to 0} \frac{x(t+\Delta t) - x(t)}{\Delta t}$$So we can see that dx/dt is itself another map from a real number t ... 3 The term functional is used in at least two different meanings. One meaning is in the mathematical topic of functional analysis, where one in particular studies linear functionals. This meaning is not relevant for the discussion at page 299 in Ref. 1. Another meaning is in the topics of calculus of variations and (classical) field theory. This is the ... 3 Functional derivative: F_d[{\bf p}] = \int \mathrm d\boldsymbol{r}\ f( \boldsymbol{r}, {\bf p}(\boldsymbol{r}), \nabla\cdot {\bf p}(\boldsymbol{r}) ) \frac{\delta F_d}{\delta {\bf p}(\boldsymbol{r})} := \frac{\partial f}{\partial {\bf p}} - \nabla \cdot \frac{\partial f}{\partial\nabla\cdot {\bf p}}, although something's weird with your signs. Your ... 3 Whenever I have troubles with functional derivative things, I just do the replacement of a continuous variable x into a discrete index i. If I'm not mistaken this is what they call a "DeWitt notation". The hand waiving idea is that you can think of a functional F[f(x)] as of a "ordinary function" of many variables ... 2 The expression :  [d\phi(x)] \frac{\delta F}{\delta \phi(x)} could be interpreted as a formal dF(\phi) :$$\int [d\phi(x)] \frac{\delta F}{\delta \phi(x)} \sim \int \frac {\partial F}{\partial \phi_i} d\phi_i \sim \int dF(\phi) =F(+\infty) - F(-\infty)$$So the left hand side of the expression is zero only for identical boudary conditions, for instance ... 2 The least error-prone way for computing the functional derivative df(M)/dM(x) by hand is the use of the formula \int dx \frac{\partial f(M)}{\partial M(x)} N(x) = \frac{d}{dt} f(M+tN) |_{t=0}, where N is of the same type as M (but c-valued if M is an operator). The right hand side is easy to work out, and the result is a linear functional in ... 2 In classical field theory, fields are simply sections of some fibre bundle E over a spacetime M. To any such bundle, one can associate jet-bundles J^kE, sections of those contain derivatives of the fields, they form an inverse system, so you can define a bundle J^\infty E. A Lagrange density is then simply a map$$ L \colon J^\infty(E) \to ...

2

Have a look first at several chapters in Stone and Goldbart, "Mathematics for Physics" (the free preprint is here) before entering into more specific books. I think you may want to see chapters 1, and parts of 2 and 9. You may find some parts of what you want in classic books of the "Comprehensive Mathematical Methods for Physics" type, but they don't ...

2

The standard encyclopedic treatise of nonlinear functional analysis is the 5 volume opus of Eberhard Zeidler, "Nonlinear Functional Analysis and Its Applications". It covers a lot of material about variational calculus, for example, in volume III "Variational Methods and Optimization". The applications are usually applications from physics. If that is too ...

1

First of all, the Pauli matrices are not space-time dependent, so of course you can pass the derivative right through them. Second of all, $\operatorname{Tr} [\partial(\vec{\pi}\cdot\vec{\tau})]^2 = \operatorname{Tr}\partial_\mu \pi^i \partial^\mu \pi^j \tau^i \tau^j$ Now remember $\tau^i \tau^j = i \epsilon_{ijk} \tau^k + \delta^{ij} I_{2x2}$ So ...

1

1) Let us write the Wilson-line of a simple open curve $\gamma: [s_i,s_f]\to \mathbb{R}^4$ as $$\tag{1} U(s_f,s_i) ~=~ \mathcal{P}\exp \left[ i\int_{\gamma} A_{\mu}~ dx^{\mu} \right].$$ 2) The path-ordering $\mathcal{P}$ becomes important if the gauge potential $$\tag{2}A_{\mu}~=~A^a_{\mu} T_a$$ is non-abelian. Here $T_a$ are the generators of the ...

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