Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2012/iii/paper-20/2/i/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2012 iii Paper 20 2 i Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
A function is an integral of motion of when it is constant along every trajectory of the Hamiltonian flow. Infinitesimally,The antisymmetry of a Lie bracket of the Poisson bracket gives . Hence is also an integral of motion of .
For the commuting assertion, , because is closed. The contraction identity for a Lie bracket of vector fields then givesSince the symplectic form is a nondegenerate bilinear form at every point, the Hamiltonian vector fields commute:With the chosen convention the general identity is . Equivalently, it follows by applying the Jacobi identity for the Poisson bracket to an arbitrary test function. Local flows commute whenever both compositions are defined; no global completeness assumption is needed.
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