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Phys. Rev. D 4, 3559–3566 (1971)

Hamiltonian Theory of a Relativistic Perfect Fluid

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Bernard F. Schutz, Jr.*
California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91109

Received 4 August 1971; published in the issue dated 15 December 1971

The velocity-potential version of the hydrodynamics of a relativistic perfect fluid is put into Hamiltonian form by applying Dirac's method to the version's degenerate Lagrangian. There is only one independent momentum, and the Hamiltonian density is -T00(-g00)-1/2. The Einstein equations for a perfect fluid are then put into Hamiltonian form by analog with Arnowitt, Deser, and Misner's vacuum Einstein equations. The Hamiltonian density splits into two pieces, which are the coordinate densities of energy and momentum of the fluid relative to an observer at rest on the hypersurface of constant coordinate time.

© 1971 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevD.4.3559
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevD.4.3559
PACS:

*Present address: Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, Cambridge University, Cambridge, England.