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Equation of motion from Polyakov action

Physics Asked on February 9, 2021

If I write (my understanding of) how to derive the equations of motion from the Polyakov action, I come up missing a term.

Beginning with the basic Polyakov action
begin{equation}
S = -frac{T}{2}intsqrt{-h}h^{ab}g_{munu}partial_aX^mupartial_bX^nu,d^2xi
end{equation}
the Lagrangian is
begin{equation}
mathcal{L}=-frac{T}{2}sqrt{-h}h^{ab}partial_aX^mupartial_bX^nu
end{equation}
which after plugging into the Euler-Lagrange equation is
begin{equation}
0-frac{partial}{partial xi^b}left[-frac{T}{2} sqrt{-h}h^{ab}partial_aX^nuright]=0
end{equation}
which leads to (my result of)
begin{equation}
partial_bleft[ sqrt{-h}h^{ab}partial_a X^nuright] =0
end{equation}
The equation of motion should be
begin{equation}
Box X^nu = frac{1}{sqrt{-h}}partial_bleft[ sqrt{-h}h^{ab}partial_a X^nuright] =0
end{equation}
My question is that I do not see where the $1/sqrt{-h}$ comes from. (This result is ok for the Polyakov action on its own, but I want to be able to add a mass term to the action which will make the $1/sqrt{-h}$ matter then.)

I think that there is something fundamental that I am missing about deriving the equation of motion. I understand that the operator $nabla_mu X^nu=partial_mu X^nu +Gamma^nu_{mulambda}X^lambda$, but I am bothered by deriving the equations of motion when the Lagrangian density is $L(X^nu,partial_aX^nu)$ instead of $L(X^nu,nabla_aX^nu)$. If I derive the Euler-Lagrange equation of motion from varying an action containing $L(X^nu,partial_aX^nu)$:
begin{eqnarray}
delta S &=& int delta L (X^nu,partial_a X^nu)sqrt{-g}d^nX \
&=& int left[ frac{delta L}{delta(partial_aX^nu)}delta(partial_aX^nu) + delta X^nunabla_afrac{delta L}{delta(partial_aX^nu)}right]sqrt{-g}d^nX + int left[ frac{delta L}{delta X^nu}-nabla_afrac{delta L}{delta (partial_a X^nu)}right]delta X^nusqrt{-g}d^nX
end{eqnarray}
can I still send the surface term (the first term above) to zero? Thanks for any insight.

One Answer

It's easier to compute the equations of motion by using variations of the inverse metric.

$$ frac{delta S}{delta h^{ab}}=0 $$ You can use the distributive property of the variational operator and make use of the identity $$ frac{1}{sqrt{-h}}frac{deltasqrt{-h}}{delta h^{ab}}=-frac{1}{2}h_{ab} $$

Answered by Judas503 on February 9, 2021

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