Past exam of the theoretical physics I course of the University of Cambridge / 2022 / 2 / a / Solution

Vary the action $S=\int dtdx\mathcal{L}$ with compactly supported $\delta \varphi$, or impose vanishing $\delta \varphi$ and its first derivatives on the spacetime boundary. The first variation isOne integration by parts on the first-derivative term and two on the second-derivative term remove all derivatives from $\delta \varphi$. The boundary terms vanish, leavingThe fundamental lemma of the calculus of variations gives the Euler-Lagrange field equation with second derivatives:Repeated indices run over time and space. The coefficient of the symmetric second derivative is defined by the displayed variation; if ${\varphi }_{tx}$ is instead treated as a single independent mixed derivative variable, it is counted once rather than twice.