Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-short-options-paper-shared-by-prelims-and-parts-a-and-b-of-the-physics-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2016/s7/2/1/solution

A constant of motion has zero total derivative on every solution, and may explicitly depend on time. For an infinitesimal transformation with , the on-shell first variation is . Therefore is conserved. Including a time shift gives the corresponding . This proves Noether's theorem in its usual point-transformation form. A symmetry of the action up to a boundary term is sufficient; exact invariance of the displayed Lagrangian is stronger than necessary. Discrete transformations by themselves do not give this continuous-charge construction.

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