[Physics] Are the partial derivatives of Lagrangian in the varied action functional derivatives

actionfield-theoryfunctional-derivativeslagrangian-formalismvariational-calculus

In particle mechanics Lagrangian $L$ depends upon position, velocity (and may be explicitly on time), whereas in field theory the Lagrangian density ${\cal L}$ similarly (or analogously) depends upon the field and its derivatives. When we derive Euler-Lagrange equation of motion we vary the action,

In particle mechanics, $$\delta S=\int_{t_1}^{t_2}~\mathrm dt\left(\frac{\partial L}{\partial q}~\delta q+\frac{\partial L}{\partial \dot{q}}~\delta \dot{q}\right)\tag{1}$$

In field theory, $$\delta S=\int_\sigma~\mathrm d^4x\left(\frac{\partial \mathcal{L}}{\partial \phi}~\delta \phi+\frac{\partial \mathcal{L}}{\partial (\partial _\mu \phi)}~\delta \partial_\mu \phi\right).\tag{2}$$

Now, Lagrangian is a functional, it maps functions (position, velocity or fields and their derivatives) into another function (or a real number). Like, $$L:F×F→F;(q(t),\dot{q}(t))↦L[q(t),\dot{q}(t)]. \tag{3}$$ So my question is that are the partial derivatives of the Lagrangian w.r.t. position and velocity functions or fields and their derivatives functional derivatives?

Best Answer

Yes, OP is right. In the field-theoretic case, the partial derivatives in OP's first formula (1) should be replaced with functional derivatives

$$ \delta S~=~\int_{t_1}^{t_2}\!\mathrm{d}t\left(\frac{\delta L}{\delta q}~\delta q+\left. \frac{\delta L}{\delta v}\right|_{v=\dot{q}}~\delta \dot{q}\right),\tag{1'}$$

where the Lagrangian

$$L[q(\cdot,t),v(\cdot,t);t]~=\int \! \mathrm d^3x~ {\cal L}(q(x,t),v(x,t), ~\partial_x q(x,t), \partial_x v(x,t),~\ldots , t) $$

is a functional. The ellipsis $\ldots$ indicates dependence of possible higher-order derivatives. See my Phys.SE answers here and here for further details.