Phase space method

Abstract: The covariant phase space method of Iyer, Lee, Wald, and Zoupas gives an elegant way to understand the Hamiltonian dynamics of Lagrangian field theories without breaking covariance. The original literature however does not systematically treat total derivatives and boundary terms, which has led to some confusion about how exactly to apply the formalism in the presence of boundaries. In particular the original construction of the canonical Hamiltonian relies on the assumed existence of a certain boundary quantity “B”, whose physical interpretation has not been clear. We here give an algorithmic procedure for applying the covariant phase space formalism to field theories with spatial boundaries, from which the term in the Hamiltonian involving B emerges naturally. Our procedure also produces an additional boundary term, which was not present in the original literature and which so far has only appeared implicitly in specific examples, and which is already nonvanishing even in general relativity with sufficiently permissive boundary conditions. The only requirement we impose is that at solutions of the equations of motion the action is stationary modulo future/past boundary terms under arbitrary variations obeying the spatial boundary conditions; from this the symplectic structure and the Hamiltonian for any diffeomorphism that preserves the theory are unambiguously constructed. We show in examples that the Hamiltonian so constructed agrees with previous results. We also show that the Poisson bracket on covariant phase space directly coincides with the Peierls bracket, without any need for non-covariant intermediate steps, and we discuss possible implications for the entropy of dynamical black hole horizons.

Abstract: The covariant phase space method of Iyer, Lee, Wald, and Zoupas gives an elegant way to understand the Hamiltonian dynamics of Lagrangian field theories without breaking covariance. The original literature however does not systematically treat total derivatives and boundary terms, which has led to some confusion about how exactly to apply the formalism in the presence of boundaries. In particular the original construction of the canonical Hamiltonian relies on the assumed existence of a certain boundary quantity "$B$", whose physical interpretation has not been clear. We here give an algorithmic procedure for applying the covariant phase space formalism to field theories with spatial boundaries, from which the term in the Hamiltonian involving $B$ emerges naturally. Our procedure also produces an additional boundary term, which was not present in the original literature and which so far has only appeared implicitly in specific examples, and which is already nonvanishing even in general relativity with sufficiently permissive boundary conditions. The only requirement we impose is that at solutions of the equations of motion the action is stationary modulo future/past boundary terms under arbitrary variations obeying the spatial boundary conditions; from this the symplectic structure and the Hamiltonian for any diffeomorphism that preserves the theory are unambiguously constructed. We show in examples that the Hamiltonian so constructed agrees with previous results. We also show that the Poisson bracket on covariant phase space directly coincides with the Peierls bracket, without any need for non-covariant intermediate steps, and we discuss possible implications for the entropy of dynamical black hole horizons.

Abstract: We provide a general formulation for calculating conserved charges for solutions to generally covariant gravitational theories with possibly other internal gauge symmetries, in any dimensions and with generic asymptotic behaviors. These solutions are generically specified by a number of exact (continuous, global) symmetries and some parameters. We define ``parametric variations'' as field perturbations generated by variations of the solution parameters. Employing the covariant phase space method, we establish that the set of these solutions (up to pure gauge transformations) form a phase space, the solution phase space, and that the tangent space of this phase space includes the parametric variations. We then compute conserved charge variations associated with the exact symmetries of the family of solutions, caused by parametric variations. Integrating the charge variations over a path in the solution phase space, we define the conserved charges. In particular, we revisit ``black hole entropy as a conserved charge'' and the derivation of the first law of black hole thermodynamics. We show that the solution phase space setting enables us to define black hole entropy by an integration over any compact, codminesion-2, smooth spacelike surface encircling the hole, as well as to a natural generalization of Wald and Iyer-Wald analysis to cases involving gauge fields.

Abstract: Sobolev type equation theory has been an object of interest in recent years, with much attention being devoted to deterministic equations and systems. Still, there are also mathematical models containing random perturbation, such as white noise; these models are often used in natural experiments and have recently driven a large amount of research on stochastic differential equations. A new concept of ``white noise", originally constructed for finite dimensional spaces, is extended here to the case of infinite dimensional spaces. The main purpose is to develop stochastic higher-order Sobolev type equation theory and provide some practical applications. The main idea is to construct ``noise" spaces using the Nelson -- Gliklikh derivative. Abstract results are applied to the Boussinesq -- Love model with additive ``white noise" within Sobolev type equation theory. Because of their usefulness, we mainly focus on Sobolev type equations with relatively p-bounded operators. We also use well-known methods in the investigation of Sobolev type equations, such as the phase space method, which reduces a singular equation to a regular one, as defined on some subspace of the initial space.