Suppose is a Killing vector field, is an electromagnetic field tensor satisfying and , and a particle of nonzero mass obeys the Lorentz force equation . Cartan's magic formula gives , so the local potential of a closed differential one-form proof gives locally. The Killing equation eliminates , and the force term gives . Therefore is locally conserved. The sign assumes contraction in the first argument of . A global potential additionally requires the closed one-form to have zero periods; invariance alone is insufficient without the homogeneous Maxwell equations.
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