On Hamiltonian formulations of the Schrodinger system

We review and compare different variational formulations for the Schrodinger field. Some of them rely on the addition of a conveniently chosen total time derivative to the hermitic Lagrangian. Alternatively, the Dirac-Bergmann algorithm yields the Schrodinger equation first as a Consistency condition in the full phase space, second as canonical equation in the reduced phase space. The two methods lead to the same (reduced) Hamiltonian. As a third possibility. the Faddeev-Jackiw method is shown to be a shortcut of the Dirac method. By implementing the quantization scheme for systems with second class constraints. inconsistencies of previous treatments are eliminated. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science (USA).