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In general the Legendre transformation$^1$ from the Lagrangian to the Hamiltonian formulation may be singular, which leads to primary constraints. This is e.g. the case for gauge theories like Yang-Mills (YM) theory with or without matter, which OP mentions.

However, in case of a singular Legendre transformation, by performing a so-called Dirac-Bergmann analysis (which may lead to secondary constraints), it is still possible in principle to define a corresponding Hamiltonian formulation. Typically, the canonical Hamiltonian $H_0=p\dot{q}-L$ gets amended with terms of the form 'constraint times Lagrange multiplier'. For details, see e.g. Refs. 1 & 2.

References:

  1. P.A.M. Dirac, Lectures on QM, 1964.

  2. M. Henneaux & C. Teitelboim, Quantization of Gauge Systems, 1994.

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$^1$ Concerning fermions, see e.g. this Phys.SE post.

In general the Legendre transformation from the Lagrangian to the Hamiltonian formulation may be singular, which leads to primary constraints. This is e.g. the case for gauge theories like Yang-Mills (YM) theory with or without matter, which OP mentions.

However, in case of a singular Legendre transformation, by performing a so-called Dirac-Bergmann analysis (which may lead to secondary constraints), it is still possible in principle to define a corresponding Hamiltonian formulation. For details, see e.g. Refs. 1 & 2.

References:

  1. P.A.M. Dirac, Lectures on QM, 1964.

  2. M. Henneaux & C. Teitelboim, Quantization of Gauge Systems, 1994.

In general the Legendre transformation$^1$ from the Lagrangian to the Hamiltonian formulation may be singular, which leads to primary constraints. This is e.g. the case for gauge theories like Yang-Mills (YM) theory with or without matter, which OP mentions.

However, in case of a singular Legendre transformation, by performing a so-called Dirac-Bergmann analysis (which may lead to secondary constraints), it is still possible in principle to define a corresponding Hamiltonian formulation. Typically, the canonical Hamiltonian $H_0=p\dot{q}-L$ gets amended with terms of the form 'constraint times Lagrange multiplier'. For details, see e.g. Refs. 1 & 2.

References:

  1. P.A.M. Dirac, Lectures on QM, 1964.

  2. M. Henneaux & C. Teitelboim, Quantization of Gauge Systems, 1994.

--

$^1$ Concerning fermions, see e.g. this Phys.SE post.

Source Link
Qmechanic
  • 212.7k
  • 48
  • 589
  • 2.3k

In general the Legendre transformation from the Lagrangian to the Hamiltonian formulation may be singular, which leads to primary constraints. This is e.g. the case for gauge theories like Yang-Mills (YM) theory with or without matter, which OP mentions.

However, in case of a singular Legendre transformation, by performing a so-called Dirac-Bergmann analysis (which may lead to secondary constraints), it is still possible in principle to define a corresponding Hamiltonian formulation. For details, see e.g. Refs. 1 & 2.

References:

  1. P.A.M. Dirac, Lectures on QM, 1964.

  2. M. Henneaux & C. Teitelboim, Quantization of Gauge Systems, 1994.