Paper 1, Section I, E

Classical Dynamics
Part II, 2016

Consider a one-parameter family of transformations qi(t)Qi(s,t)q_{i}(t) \mapsto Q_{i}(s, t) such that Qi(0,t)=qi(t)Q_{i}(0, t)=q_{i}(t) for all time tt, and

sL(Qi,Q˙i,t)=0\frac{\partial}{\partial s} L\left(Q_{i}, \dot{Q}_{i}, t\right)=0

where LL is a Lagrangian and a dot denotes differentiation with respect to tt. State and prove Noether's theorem.

Consider the Lagrangian

L=12(x˙2+y˙2+z˙2)V(x+y,y+z),L=\frac{1}{2}\left(\dot{x}^{2}+\dot{y}^{2}+\dot{z}^{2}\right)-V(x+y, y+z),

where the potential VV is a function of two variables. Find a continuous symmetry of this Lagrangian and construct the corresponding conserved quantity. Use the Euler-Lagrange equations to explicitly verify that the function you have constructed is independent of tt.