  A consistent, local coordinate formulation of covariant Hamiltonian field
theory is presented. While the covariant canonical field equations are
equivalent to the Euler-Lagrange field equations, the covariant canonical
transformation theory offers more general means for defining mappings that
preserve the action functional - and hence the form of the field equations -
than the usual Lagrangian description. Similar to the well-known canonical
transformation theory of point dynamics, the canonical transformation rules for
fields are derived from generating functions. As an interesting example, we
work out the generating function of type F_2 of a general local U(N) gauge
transformation and thus derive the most general form of a Hamiltonian density
that is form-invariant under local U(N) gauge transformations.
