Paper 2, Section II, C

Classical Dynamics
Part II, 2015

(a) Consider a Lagrangian dynamical system with one degree of freedom. Write down the expression for the Hamiltonian of the system in terms of the generalized velocity q˙\dot{q}, momentum pp, and the Lagrangian L(q,q˙,t)L(q, \dot{q}, t). By considering the differential of the Hamiltonian, or otherwise, derive Hamilton's equations.

Show that if qq is ignorable (cyclic) with respect to the Lagrangian, i.e. L/q=0\partial L / \partial q=0, then it is also ignorable with respect to the Hamiltonian.

(b) A particle of charge qq and mass mm moves in the presence of electric and magnetic fields such that the scalar and vector potentials are ϕ=yE\phi=y E and A=(0,xB,0)\mathbf{A}=(0, x B, 0), where (x,y,z)(x, y, z) are Cartesian coordinates and E,BE, B are constants. The Lagrangian of the particle is

L=12mr˙2qϕ+qr˙AL=\frac{1}{2} m \dot{\mathbf{r}}^{2}-q \phi+q \dot{\mathbf{r}} \cdot \mathbf{A}

Starting with the Lagrangian, derive an explicit expression for the Hamiltonian and use Hamilton's equations to determine the motion of the particle.