Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-lie-groups-and-differentiable-manifolds-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2008/b/8/solution
Past exam of the lie Groups and Differentiable Manifolds course of the University of Oxford 2008 B 8 Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-31
A Riemannian metric is a smooth positive definite symmetric bilinear form on each tangent space. The inverse form on the cotangent space defines the kinetic HamiltonianIt is smooth and satisfies . With the canonical symplectic form , define . This gives Hamilton's equationsThus . Differentiating the inverse metric yields . Differentiating and substituting givesTherefore the projections of the Hamiltonian integral curves are affinely parametrized geodesics, and lifting a geodesic by its metric covector gives a Hamiltonian integral curve.
For the Killing vector field define the fibrewise linear function . Along the lifted geodesic it equals . Metric compatibility and the geodesic equation giveThus is conserved. Equivalently the cotangent lift of the isometry flow preserves , and its generator has Hamiltonian , so their Poisson bracket vanishes.
For the final two metrics write , restricting to an open set where the printed tensors are smooth nondegenerate metrics. Their inverse forms giveAlong the flow, is constant, whileHenceThis is the Liouville metric geodesic integral, a quadratic conserved quantity. It does not require a Killing vector field; it arises from the separated metric coefficients. When both printed metrics are Riemannian, their positivity in particular requires , and ; the calculation also applies wherever the corresponding inverse tensors are defined.
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