Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2011/ii/paper-1/32a/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2011 ii Paper 1 32A Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
A Hamiltonian system on a -dimensional symplectic manifold is Liouville integrable when it has first integrals, including the Hamiltonian, whose differentials are independent on a dense regular region and which pairwise have zero Poisson bracket. The Arnold-Liouville theorem states that a compact connected regular common level set is a -torus; near it there are action-angle variables in which the Hamiltonian depends only on and the motion is , . Without compactness, the torus conclusion needs modification.
Here is a cyclic coordinate, so is conserved and . The Hamilton equations areThe differentials are independent away from the circular-orbit critical set, establishing integrability. Put ; on a fixed angular-momentum level,For a bounded noncollision orbit require and . Its two turning radii areThey are positive and , and . In terms of and the angular coordinate, eliminating time gives . ThusAfter an angular change of the phase-space state returns to itself, and the elapsed time is finite because is bounded away from zero and infinity. This proves periodicity; a torus alone would only guarantee quasiperiodic motion. At the orbit is circular and remains periodic. For the allowed radial motion is unbounded. The collision case reaches the excluded boundary and is not a periodic orbit in the given phase space.
With the usual action convention , the angular cycle gives , and the two radial legs giveFor completeness, substitute to evaluate the integral as . Therefore and . The two frequencies have equal magnitude, consistent with the closed Kepler orbits. The circular limit has and .
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