A new infinite order formulation of variational sequences

Abstract

summary:The theory of variational bicomplexes is a natural geometrical setting for the calculus of variations on a fibred manifold. It is a well–established theory although not spread out very much among theoretical and mathematical physicists. Here, we present a new approach to infinite order variational bicomplexes based upon the finite order approach due to Krupka. In this approach the information related to the order of jets is lost, but we have a considerable simplification both in the exposition and in the computations. We think that our infinite order approach could be easily applied in concrete situations, due to the conceptual simplicity of the scheme.