With constant , the bulk action is invariant under time translations, translations in the two spatial coordinates, and rotations or reflections within the substrate plane. The Laplacian has no preferred direction, giving the planar symmetry. It also has scalar-field shift symmetry , expressing the arbitrary origin of height, and the discrete symmetry because its residual is squared.
There is an additional exact tilt symmetry : the added slope is time independent and has zero Laplacian. More generally, adding any function satisfying leaves the residual unchanged. Such bulk transformations need not preserve prescribed boundary conditions or a restricted physical interpretation of the height.
In two spatial dimensions the action also has the anisotropic scale invariance
The spacetime measure scales as and the squared residual as . The time and length scales are therefore related diffusively, rather than by a Lorentz transformation.
Ordinary time reversal needs a boundary qualification. The identity
shows that the density is time-reversal invariant up to a total divergence. Thus the bulk stationary equation is invariant under , although the printed density is not pointwise unchanged. The time reversal of the squared diffusion-residual action exchanges the growing and decaying branches; the selected first-order diffusion equation alone is not time-reversal invariant at fixed positive .
Put , where the diffusion coefficient is constant. Then
One temporal and two spatial integrations by parts give
with compactly supported variations. Hence
Here is the biharmonic operator. The cross terms cancel because is constant and spatial and temporal derivatives commute. Equivalently, and in part (b), producing .
This squared diffusion-residual action does not have only the first-order diffusion equation as its stationary equation. The zero-residual paths have and are certainly solutions, but the variational equation is the higher-order one above. For a spatial Fourier mode with nonzero wavevector , it gives
Boundary data or an additional physical selection principle are needed to retain only the decaying diffusion branch. The spatially uniform mode instead has in the stationary equation.
Let and . Define the second coefficient with ordered repeated indices and , so that
This convention avoids double-counting a mixed derivative such as . The first derivative term needs one integration by parts. The second derivative term needs two:
Combining the terms gives
For compactly supported variations, or fixed and its first derivatives at the boundary, the last integral vanishes. The fundamental lemma of the calculus of variations then yields the Euler-Lagrange field equation with second derivatives:
The plus sign of the final term comes from the two integrations by parts. In general this gives fourth-order equations, although the order in a particular coordinate depends on which second derivatives occur in the density.
If , the action changes by an endpoint term:
In the principle of stationary action with fixed endpoints, and the endpoint times are fixed. Therefore , and the two actions give the same bulk Euler-Lagrange equations.
For a Lagrangian density, adding changes the action by , by the divergence theorem. Its variation vanishes for compactly supported field variations, or when the appropriate boundary data are held fixed. These total divergences in a variational principle can therefore be discarded when deriving bulk equations under those conditions.
The qualification about boundaries matters: if depends on field derivatives, their variations on the boundary must also be controlled. A total derivative can change the canonical momenta or the chosen representative of a Noether current, even while leaving the bulk dynamics unchanged.
Subtracting the two linearized equations eliminates their acceleration terms:
For , the assumed nontrivial simple harmonic motion therefore has
The support displacement and pendulum angle oscillate in phase. Inserting this relation into either Euler-Lagrange equation yields
so the one positive finite angular frequency is
The negative frequency describes the same real oscillation after a phase change. For a general phase, replace the sine in both coordinates by .
There is no missing second finite branch. The quadratic Lagrangian is
whose kinetic matrix is and has rank one. Its characteristic determinant is , not a quadratic polynomial in . This singular kinetic matrix in small oscillations results from taking the support mass to be exactly zero. Adding a small support mass restores a second mode that runs to infinite frequency as that mass vanishes.
For a stiff spring,
The hinge becomes fixed, recovering the simple pendulum frequency, as expected for the pendulum with a massless spring-mounted support. At finite , horizontal support motion makes the frequency smaller.
Figure 1.
A massless spring-mounted support lowers the pendulum's one finite frequency
. Original curve of against . The small- spring-controlled limit and the large- fixed-support limit are marked. Details.
For the horizontal generalized coordinate ,
The corresponding Euler-Lagrange equation is
For , the terms proportional to cancel between and . Hence the other exact equation is
Keeping only terms linear in small coordinates and their derivatives gives
The equilibrium is . These characteristic frequencies label gravitational and spring restoring scales; they are not two independent normal mode frequencies of this massless-support system.
Use the downward direction of the PDF diagram. The bob's Cartesian coordinates are
Thus
The hinge and rod are massless, so only the bob contributes kinetic energy:
Because gravity points along positive , its gravitational potential energy is . The zero-rest-length spring has elastic potential energy . Put and divide by the positive constant . The equivalent Lagrangian is
Multiplying the action by a nonzero constant leaves its stationary paths unchanged. This derivation is a direct use of kinetic energy from Cartesian position vectors; no independent kinetic term should be assigned to the massless support.
Let for a nonzero constant magnetic field. Since is constant, the relativistic Lorentz force reduces to
The projection along is constant. In the perpendicular plane define the signed cyclotron frequency ; then
The explicit rotating velocity is
This is the relativistic cyclotron orbit frequency in laboratory time, reduced from the nonrelativistic frequency by . With nonzero parallel velocity, the trajectory is a helix. If , that perpendicular vector stays zero and has no nontrivial fundamental period; the displayed is the period of a nonzero transverse orbit.
With no electric field, the power relation from part (a) gives
Consequently
The magnetic part of the relativistic Lorentz force changes the direction of mechanical momentum, but performs no work. This conclusion does not require the magnetic field to be spatially uniform: it follows from the local orthogonality of and .
If , then , and the relativistic energy-momentum relation gives
The particle approaches the speed of light in the direction of the electric force, independently of its initial velocity. For positive the limiting direction is along ; for negative it is opposite. A massive particle never reaches that limiting speed in finite time. If the force is zero, the velocity remains instead.
For a uniform constant electric field and zero magnetic field, the mechanical momentum changes linearly even though the velocity does not:
Invert using . The result for arbitrary initial direction is
Equivalently, . This gives and guarantees at every finite momentum. The transverse momentum stays constant, but its velocity component generally decreases because the Lorentz factor increases. Thus an initial transverse velocity must not be treated as constant during the electric acceleration; this is the relativistic motion in a constant electric field with transverse momentum effect.
Figure 1.
Constant electric force changes momentum linearly while speed stays below light speed
. Original example with initial velocity perpendicular to the electric force and magnitude . The longitudinal velocity tends to , while the transverse velocity tends to zero. Time is scaled by , and the positive longitudinal direction is chosen along the force. Details.
Choose Minkowski metric , so and . In laboratory time the relativistic charged-particle action has Lagrangian
Here denotes the signed particle charge in the action. The canonical momentum and the position derivative are
The Euler-Lagrange equation therefore gives
The last term is , and the first two terms form the electric field. Thus the relativistic Lorentz force equation is
Its power relation and acceleration form are
The power relation follows by taking the scalar product with and using the relativistic energy-momentum relation. It also shows why the magnetic field alone cannot change the particle's energy.
Substitute into the cubic denominator. Its leading terms are
The nonzero large root obeys , so
The sum of the three roots is exactly . Combining this with the two slow-root expansions gives the refinement .
For physical radiative sign , the fast pole lies high in the upper half-plane. Its homogeneous mode is , a runaway. It prevents a bounded retarded response with the real-axis Fourier prescription even though the two slow poles are damped. If , the fast pole decays but the slow pair grow. No nonzero real sign puts every pole in the lower half-plane.
There are two distinct boundary choices. A strictly causal initial-value Green function exists and includes the growing mode for ; it must be represented by a Laplace/Bromwich contour above that pole rather than the stated ordinary Fourier integral. Alternatively the real-axis inverse gives a bounded stationary no-runaway response and preacceleration: for , upper closure encloses the fast pole and yields a nonzero response before the force. Its leading contribution is
This follows from the upper-pole residue and the factor from upper contour closure. Eliminating runaway growth by a future boundary condition therefore sacrifices strict retardation on the short scale .
The singular root also shows why a perturbative expansion around only misses the problem. For a low-frequency effective description, order reduction of a radiation-reaction oscillator uses in the small correction and gives . For positive this approximate second-order equation has a causal damped response and discards the fast mode outside its intended regime; it does not make the original third-order equation simultaneously bounded and retarded.
Write . The added term is , so the full potential simplifies to
The phase-rotation subgroup is reduced from U(1) to the two-element symmetry . More fully, the kinetic term and potential are invariant under independent reflections and , a internal symmetry generated by and complex conjugation. There is no continuous internal rotation symmetry for the explicit twofold anisotropy of a complex scalar field.
For fixed , positive makes the exponential grow with , so every global minimum has . On the real axis,
Thus
For , the nonzero stationary points are the two global minima; the origin is unstable along the real direction. For the origin is the unique minimum, with zero real-direction quadratic curvature at the critical value . Selecting breaks the sign reversal that exchanges the two vacua, while complex conjugation remains unbroken.
Set , . Since , expansion gives
Equivalently, in canonical fields , ,
Both masses are positive throughout the broken phase . A broken discrete symmetry does not demand a massless Goldstone boson. At the radial mass tends to zero at a phase boundary, so a claim of strictly positive mass there would be incorrect. For completeness, expanding around the symmetric origin gives squared masses and for the canonical real and imaginary fields.
Write . The covariant kinetic term contains
A local U(1) gauge symmetry can remove in unitary gauge. The angular fluctuation no longer appears as an independent physical massless Goldstone boson; its degree of freedom supplies the longitudinal polarization of the massive vector field. At quadratic order,
The factor of two follows from the convention that is the complex field's vacuum value. This Higgs mechanism changes a two-polarization massless electromagnetic field into a three-polarization massive Proca field; the remaining radial scalar keeps . Static fields in the homogeneous broken phase are screened on a scale of order in these units. The gauge symmetry is a redundancy of the description; the physical statement is the changed spectrum and disappearance of an independent massless angular mode.
Let and write . Then
Since and , the quadratic potential is
Therefore
The constant can be dropped from the fluctuation equations. For canonical real fields, use :
These are the radial and angular masses of a phase-invariant scalar potential. The radial Higgs mode changes the field magnitude and costs energy to second order. The angular Goldstone boson changes the phase along the vacuum circle without a quadratic restoring force. Its linear dispersion is , whereas the radial mode has . The zero angular mass follows the continuous broken global symmetry, not from an accidental cancellation in a particular coordinate choice.
Use metric signature and the model's rescaled units . Its exponential implicitly uses dimensionless rescaled field and coupling combinations; the numerical coefficients of the potential are those supplied. Treat and as independent variables in taking canonical derivatives:
The Hamiltonian density is
The kinetic and gradient terms are nonnegative, so a static homogeneous minimum is obtained by minimizing the potential. Put . For , is unbounded below. For , the exponential decays while tends to minus infinity. Thus a stable vacuum requires .
For positive ,
The exponential complex-scalar potential consequently has
For , the minima form a circle , with and . For the minimum has . The symmetry remains global phase rotation in either phase, but a chosen nonzero vacuum breaks it spontaneously. At the origin is a unique minimum with vanishing quadratic curvature and a positive leading quartic term; this critical masslessness should not be confused with a Goldstone mode.
Figure 1.
Original radial potentials showing the continuous and explicitly twofold vacuum structures and their thresholds
. Details.
Define the positive focusing frequency
In the paraxial approximation , traversal time is . The exit values are
Across the exit fringe, and remove the azimuthal velocity. The radial velocity remains continuous in the thin-fringe model. Outside, the transverse trajectory is therefore straight along a fixed azimuth, not a continuing helix. Taking the outgoing axial speed also as , the distance to the axis is
It is independent of , so all equal-speed paraxial rays focus to a common point. The condition ensures the first focus lies beyond the exit. For a weak lens, .
The relativistic solenoid magnetic lens focuses either charge sign, while its rotation reverses with . Keeping the exact radius-dependent , or the exit axial-speed change, produces radius-dependent corrections and spoils an exact common focus. Thus the requested focus is appropriately a paraxial result, with the end fields included even when their axial-speed changes are neglected.

Pinned article: Introduction to the OurBigBook Project

Welcome to the OurBigBook Project! Our goal is to create the perfect publishing platform for STEM subjects, and get university-level students to write the best free STEM tutorials ever.
Everyone is welcome to create an account and play with the site: ourbigbook.com/go/register. We belive that students themselves can write amazing tutorials, but teachers are welcome too. You can write about anything you want, it doesn't have to be STEM or even educational. Silly test content is very welcome and you won't be penalized in any way. Just keep it legal!
We have two killer features:
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    Articles of different users are sorted by upvote within each article page. This feature is a bit like:
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    • a Q&A website like Stack Overflow, where multiple people can give their views on a given topic, and the best ones are sorted by upvote. Except you don't need to wait for someone to ask first, and any topic goes, no matter how narrow or broad
    This feature makes it possible for readers to find better explanations of any topic created by other writers. And it allows writers to create an explanation in a place that readers might actually find it.
    Figure 1.
    Screenshot of the "Derivative" topic page
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    Figure 5. . You can also edit articles on the Web editor without installing anything locally.
    Video 3.
    Edit locally and publish demo
    . Source. This shows editing OurBigBook Markup and publishing it using the Visual Studio Code extension.
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    Figure 6.
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