On the use of Clebsch potentials in the Lagrangian formulation of classical electrodynamics

The representation of electromagnetic fields in terms of Clebsch potentials in a recently discussed variational formulation of plasma dynamics is shown to lead to physically problematic results. In particular, it turns out to be impossible to derive the complete set of inhomogeneous Maxwell equations from the respective set of Euler-Lagrange equations. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.