Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-short-options-paper-shared-by-parts-a-and-b-of-the-physics-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2019/s7/1/d/solution

The orbiting planet produces a potential . It has explicit time dependence and exerts an azimuthal torque, so generally and are nonzero. Nevertheless a simultaneous time-translation symmetry and rotation leaves the Lagrangian and unchanged. Noether's theorem gives and hence
Equivalently implies . This Jacobi integral assumes a rigidly rotating potential with constant and negligible back-reaction from the test particle.

New to topics? Read the docs here!