Answer by jdelgado for Which differential equations allow for a variational...
Well this is a classical problem known as "The inverse problem in the calculus of variations". There is a huge amount of references on the problem you can google at. The problem as if the system...
View ArticleAnswer by Igor Khavkine for Which differential equations allow for a...
Others give useful references that discuss what is known about the answer, but no statement of the answer itself. The relevant algebraic setting is the variational bicomplex, which is discussed in the...
View ArticleAnswer by alvarezpaiva for Which differential equations allow for a...
There is a huge amount of literature on this problem. I include some works that seem "classic" and that I've consulted at some...
View ArticleAnswer by Jonny Evans for Which differential equations allow for a...
I remember idly wondering about this once and found that Anderson's work on the variational bicomplex satisfied my idle curiosity.
View ArticleWhich differential equations allow for a variational formulation?
Many ODE's and PDE's arising in nature have a variational formulation. An example of what I mean is the following. Classical motions are solutions $q(t)$ to Lagrange's...
View Article