Higher-derivative boson field theories and constrained second-order theories

As an alternative to the covariant Ostrogradski method, we show that higher-derivative (HD) relativistic Lagrangian field theories can be reduced to second differential order by writing them directly as covariant two-derivative theories involving Lagrange multipliers and new fields. Despite the intrinsic non-covariance of the Dirac procedure used to deal with the constraints, the explicit Lorentz invariance is recovered at the end. We develop this new setting on the basis of a simple scalar model and then its applications to generalized electrodynamics and HD gravity are worked out. For a wide class of field theories this method is better suited than Ostrogradski's for a generalization to 2n-derivative theories.