 Variational symmetry of a Lagrangian density

A differentiable infinitesimal transformation is a variational symmetry when its change of the Lagrangian density is a divergence, $\delta \mathcal{L}=\epsilon {\partial }_{\mu }{K}^{\mu }$. Under suitable boundary conditions the action is invariant, so exact pointwise invariance is unnecessary. The off-shell variation identity gives the Noether current for a first-derivative scalar field. This definition is for a constant transformation parameter; a spacetime-dependent parameter is a different, gauge-symmetry problem.