Peierls brackets in non-Lagrangian field theory

Abstract

The concept of Lagrange structure allows one to systematically quantize the Lagrangian and non-Lagrangian dynamics within the path-integral approach. In this paper, I show that any Lagrange structure gives rise to a covariant Poisson brackets on the space of solutions to the classical equations of motion, be they Lagrangian or not. The brackets generalize the well-known Peierls' bracket construction and make a bridge between the path-integral and the deformation quantization of non-Lagrangian dynamics.