Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2009/iii/paper-64/4/b/solution

Self-adjointness gives , so
The integrated expression from part (a) also writes it explicitly as
This is the quadratic change in potential energy associated with the perturbation, including pressure, magnetic and imposed-gravity restoring effects. Its sign need not be positive term by term.
The perturbation kinetic energy is , and the total quadratic perturbation energy is
Since the equilibrium and are time independent, differentiating and using the self-adjoint operator identity gives
Thus along the linearized motion. This conserved kinetic-plus-restoring energy is the basis of the magnetohydrodynamic energy principle.

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