Nonlocal Lagrangian formalism

Abstract

This thesis aims to study nonlocal Lagrangians with a finite and an infinite number of degrees of freedom. We obtain an extension of Noether's theorem and Noether's identities for such Lagrangians. We then set up a Hamiltonian formalism for them. Furthermore, we show that $r^{\rm th}$-order Lagrangians can be treated as a particular case, and the expected results are recovered. Finally, the method developed is applied to different examples: nonlocal harmonic oscillator, $p$-adic particle, $p$-adic open string field, and electrodynamics of dispersive media.