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Can we find a Lagrangian for the the following first order equation?

\begin{equation} \dot x=x^2,\tag{1} \end{equation} where the above equation is the Euler-Lagrange equation of that Lagrangian?.

For second order equations, it can be found easily for some class of equations.

Qmechanic
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Arian
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4 Answers4

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I think that the answer is negative, at least for Lagrangians of the form $\mathcal{L}(\theta,\dot \theta)$. Suppose such a mythical Lagrangian exists. Thus, Euler Lagrange equations is of the form. $$ \ddot \theta \mathcal{L}_{\dot \theta \dot\theta} + \dot \theta \mathcal{L}_{\dot \theta \theta} = \mathcal{L}_{\theta} $$ Thus, $\mathcal{L}_{\dot \theta \dot\theta} =0$. So $\mathcal{L} = \dot \theta f(\theta) + g(\theta)$. But then, Euler Lagrange equation is $$ \dot \theta f'(\theta) = \dot \theta f'(\theta) + g'(\theta) \Rightarrow g=C $$ Then, up to a constant $\mathcal{L} = \dot\theta f(\theta)$, and Euler Lagrange equations are trivial.

If $\mathcal{L}(\theta,\dot \theta, \mathcal t)$, then $\mathcal{L}=\dot \theta f(\theta, t) + g(\theta,t)$. But then Euler-Lagrange reduce to $$ \partial_t f(\theta,t) = \partial_\theta g(\theta,t)$$

If $f$ and $g$ are smooth enough, $f=\partial_\theta F$ and $g=\partial_tG$. But then $F(\theta,t) = G(\theta,t) + i(\theta) - j (t)$, Let $H(\theta,t) = F(\theta,t) + j(t) = G(\theta,t) + i(\theta)$. Then $\mathcal{L}=\dot \theta \partial_\theta H+\partial_t H$.

Jorge
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  • https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/191935/what-if-the-euler-lagrange-equation-yields-a-trivial-answer – Jorge May 19 '23 at 12:36
  • Thank you so much Jorge, So the Lagrangian is trivial in the last line, because we can write $\mathcal{L}dt=dH$. – Arian May 19 '23 at 19:05
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(Too long for a comment)

In the same spirit as Jorge's great answer, I wanted to complete the discussion by making the following remark : the Lagrangian formalism has not been really designed for tackling second-order equation of motion, whence the present difficulty to find a suitable Lagrangian. On the contrary, the Hamiltonian mechanics does it pretty well.

Indeed, recalling that the equations of motion generated by a Hamiltonian $H(q,p)$ are given by $$ \begin{cases} \displaystyle \dot{q} = +\frac{\partial H}{\partial p} \\ \displaystyle \dot{p} = -\frac{\partial H}{\partial q} \end{cases} $$ and setting $\dot{p} = p^2$, we thus have $H(q,p) = -p^2q + f(q)$, where $f(q)$ is an arbitrary function, and the work is done. Note that the conjugate variable obeys consequently the following equation of motion : $\dot{q} = -2pq$. Of course, we could have inverted the roles of the two conjugate variables.

In addition, since $p = -\frac{\dot{q}}{2q}$, the associated Lagrangian would be given by $$ L(q,\dot{q}) = p\dot{q} - H = -\frac{\dot{q}^2}{2q} - \left(-\frac{\dot{q}^2}{4q}+f(q)\right) = -\frac{\dot{q}^2}{4q}-f(q). $$ Let's check its functional derivative : $$ \frac{\delta L}{\delta q} = \left(\frac{\partial}{\partial q} - \frac{\mathrm{d}}{\mathrm{d}t} \frac{\partial}{\partial\dot{q}}\right)\left(-\frac{\dot{q}^2}{4q}-f(q)\right) = -f'(q), $$ which fails to produce a differential equation. One could argue that we should have impose the equation of motion for the other conjugate variable at the very beginning, i.e. $\dot{q} = q^2$, but then the situation would get even worse, because the corresponding Lagrangian would be of the form $L = -\frac{1}{2}q^3 + g(q)$, with $g$ another arbitrary function.

In conclusion, the Lagrangian formalism fails to handle first-order equations of motion.

Abezhiko
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Yes, if $x\in\mathbb{C}\backslash\{0\}$ is a non-zero complex variable$^1$. Define $$z~\equiv~q+ip~\equiv~-1/x.\tag{A}$$ Then OP's first order equation (1) becomes $$\dot{z}~=~1.\tag{B}$$ Eq. (B) has a Lagrangian $$\begin{align}L~\equiv~&\frac{i}{2}(\bar{z}\dot{z}-z\dot{\bar{z}})-\frac{z-\bar{z}}{2i}\cr ~\equiv~&p (\dot{q}-1)\cr ~\equiv~&{\rm Im}(1/x) \left({\rm Re}\frac{d(1/x)}{dt}+1\right). \end{align}\tag{C}$$

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$^1$ There is always the trivial possibility to implement OP's equation (1) via a Lagrange multiplier. Here we assume that we are not allowed to introduce new variables.

Qmechanic
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  • Thank you so much, it is interesting. do you think that it is possible to quantize that Lagrangian (eq.C) and then extract from it information about real valued version of eq.A (supoose that the real valued equation $\dot x=x^2$ have a quantum version)? – Arian May 20 '23 at 19:43
  • I updated the answer. – Qmechanic May 20 '23 at 19:52
  • Thanks dear Qmechanics, I got that, imposing that $x$ is a real valued function, the Lagrangian becomes trivial. My question is as follows : by quantizing the complex Lagrangian, can we achieve some information about quantum version of $\dot x=x^2$ as a real equation? – Arian May 20 '23 at 19:59
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The following Lagrangian is inspired by Qmechanic's answer: $$ L(x,y,\dot{x})=y(\dot{x}-x^2). \tag{1} $$ The associated Euler-Lagrange equations are $$ \begin{cases} \dot{x}=x^2, \\ \dot{y}=-2xy. \tag{2} \end{cases} $$

Gonçalo
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