Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2023/ii/paper-1/37a/a/solution

For a timelike worldline, . Its square root is a Lorentz scalar, and
Thus the first term is the Lorentz-invariant free-particle action . Written as a line element, it is also invariant under a change of the worldline parameter .
The interaction is the scalar line integral
Under an electromagnetic gauge transformation
it changes only by
This endpoint term does not affect a fixed-endpoint variational problem. Hence both Lorentz invariance and gauge invariance select the displayed relativistic charged-particle action, with the expected free-particle and minimal-coupling terms.

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