The Second Euler-Lagrange Equation of Variational Calculus on Time Scales

Abstract

The fundamental problem of the calculus of variations on time scales concerns the minimization of a delta-integral over all trajectories satisfying given boundary conditions. In this paper we prove the second Euler-Lagrange necessary optimality condition for optimal trajectories of variational problems on time scales. As an example of application of the main result, we give an alternative and simpler proof to the Noether theorem on time scales recently obtained in [J. Math. Anal. Appl. 342 (2008), no. 2, 1220-1226].