Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-classical-mechanics-course-of-part-b-of-the-physics-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2016/4/e/solution

For the uniform-gravity Hamiltonian, take the three integrals . Since the potential does not depend on ,
For , the term in makes these three differentials independent. Thus the system is Liouville integrable, as the explicit separated solution already demonstrates.
Replacing by a sufficiently smooth arbitrary function preserves the same commuting integrals. They are independent wherever and do not vanish simultaneously. The vertical motion reduces to
The horizontal motion remains uniform. Thus an elementary antiderivative is unnecessary: the system is still integrable by a one-dimensional quadrature on regular branches, joined at turning points. Critical equilibria may be singular common level sets without destroying generic integrability. If is constant, the three momenta themselves give an everywhere independent commuting set, avoiding the rank loss of at .

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