Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-theoretical-physics-i-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2013/paper-1/2/b/solution

For this neutral Coulomb pair in a uniform magnetic field, the reduced Lagrangian gives the canonical momenta
Invert these relations and take the Legendre transform. The velocity-linear terms cancel against their momentum contributions, giving
There is no explicit time dependence, so . There is no dependence on , so . The distinction between kinetic momentum and magnetic pseudomomentum matters: the conserved vector is , not generally . The mechanical centre-of-mass momentum generally varies as the separation changes. A neutral pair can therefore have accelerated centre-of-mass motion in a magnetic field.

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