Nonlinear Electrodynamics: Lagrangians and Equations of Motion

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Abstract
After a brief discussion of well-known classical fields we formulate two principles: When the field equations are hyperbolic, particles move along rays like disturbances of the field; the waves associated with stable particles are exceptional. This means that these waves will not transform into shock waves. Both principles are applied to nonlinear electrodynamics. The starting point of the theory is a Lagrangian which is an arbitrary nonlinear function of the two electromagnetic invariants. We obtain the laws of propagation of photons and of charged particles, along with an anisotropic propagation of the wavefronts. The general ``exceptional'' Lagrangian is found. It reduces to the Lagrangian of Born and Infeld when some constant (probably simply connected with the Planck constant) vanishes. A nonsymmetric tensor is introduced in analogy to the Born-Infeld theory, and finally, electromagnetic waves are compared with those of Einstein-Schrödinger theory.

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