Third order equations of motion and the Ostrogradsky instability

Abstract

It is known that any nondegenerate Lagrangian containing time derivative terms higher than first order suffers from the Ostrogradsky instability, pathological excitation of positive and negative energy degrees of freedom. We show that, within the framework of analytical mechanics of point particles, any Lagrangian for third order equations of motion, which evades the nondegeneracy condition, still leads to the Ostrogradsky instability. Extension to the case of higher odd order equations of motion is also considered.