The magnetostatic Ampère's law, in vacuum, isThe path direction and surface normal are related by the right-hand rule. Taking the divergence of the differential law gives , since the divergence of a curl vanishes. However, charge conservation requires the continuity equation , which need not vanish during charging.
Using Gauss's law, , the combination has zero divergence. Replacing by this conserved total current density gives the Ampère-Maxwell equation:Its integral form is . The extra term is the displacement current. In a charging parallel-plate capacitor, a surface cutting the wire encloses a conduction current , while a surface through the vacuum gap encloses no conduction current but has . This modification makes the magnetic circulation independent of which spanning surface is chosen. The vacuum displacement current represents a changing electric field, not literal transport of charge across the gap.
Past exam of the physics A course of the University of Cambridge 2022 Paper 1 Section D D9 Solution 2026-10-18
Time dependence in quantum mechanics describes how a prepared quantum state changes and thereby changes the probabilities of later measurements. For an isolated system, the Schrödinger picture assigns this evolution to a state vector , governed by the Time-dependent Schrödinger equationThe Hamiltonian is a self-adjoint operator; it has units of energy, while has units of action, so has units of inverse time. For a particle with potential energy , this becomesGiven a suitable initial wavefunction and the physical boundary conditions, this first-order equation determines its subsequent propagation. Its linearity means that the evolution of a quantum superposition is the corresponding quantum superposition of evolved states.
For a real potential energy, this equation and its complex conjugate imply the local continuity equationHere is the probability density and the probability current. Vanishing net boundary flux preserves wavefunction normalization, as required by the Born rule.
The time-evolution operator packages the solution for every initial state:Because , differentiation givesTherefore : this is unitary time evolution, preserving inner products and all state norms. It is reversible, with , and obeys the composition law .
For a time-independent Hamiltonian, the solution is the operator exponentialIf the Hamiltonian varies with time, the analogous simple exponential of its integral is valid when for all relevant times. Otherwise time ordering is essential:The meaning is explicit in the first terms of the ordered series,the later-time operator stands on the left. In the position representation, the same propagation is expressed by the quantum-mechanical propagatorIts initial value is the Dirac delta function .
A time-independent Hamiltonian has energy eigenstates satisfying . A single such initial state evolves asIt is a stationary state: its global phase changes, but its probability density and the distributions of time-independent observables do not. Its energy is sharp. Any quantum superposition entirely within one degenerate energy eigenspace also acquires one common global phase and is stationary. Stationarity does not require zero probability current; for instance, on the ring has a constant density and persistent circulation when .
An arbitrary normalized state can instead contain different energy eigenvalues:A continuous spectrum requires corresponding integrals. For the discrete case, an energy measurement gives with fixed probability (summed over degeneracies), but relative quantum phases change with time. ConsequentlyThe interference terms can oscillate at angular frequencies . For two populated energy levels, this supplies a characteristic period when the interference term is nonzero. Thus fixed energy populations do not imply a stationary spatial distribution.
For a normalized state and an observable , its expectation value isThis is the statistical mean over repeated preparations and measurements. In an eigenbasis of energy eigenstates for a time-independent Hamiltonian and a time-independent ,Only matrix elements connecting different energies can generate these oscillations. If , its expectation value is constant for every initial state, provided it has no explicit time dependence.
Differentiating the expectation value and substituting the Schrödinger equation for both the bra and ket proves the general Ehrenfest theorem:Equivalently,These manipulations require the state to lie in the relevant operator domains. Taking gives , so energy is conserved under a time-independent Hamiltonian.
For , the canonical commutation relation givesHence the particularly useful position-and-momentum form of Ehrenfest theorem isIt resembles Newton's second law, but the mean force generally differs from the force at the mean position. If a narrow wave packet samples a region where the force varies little, gives approximate classical motion. For a quadratic potential energy this replacement is exact. In particular the quantum harmonic oscillator obeysThe centroid follows the classical harmonic oscillator, although this does not specify the full evolving wavefunction or its width.
The Heisenberg picture expresses the same physics by assigning evolution to observables instead:The expectation value is unchanged, and differentiation yields . Thus state propagation, evolving expectation values, and the classical correspondence in Ehrenfest theorem are mutually consistent descriptions of the same unitary time evolution.
displacement current completes Ampère's law:In vacuum . Taking the divergence and using gives , exactly the continuity equation. Without the added term a time-dependent charge distribution would contradict the curl equation.
A charging parallel-plate capacitor illustrates the physics. For plate area , , so the gap displacement current is , equal to the conduction current in its leads. An Ampère contour therefore gives the same magnetic circulation whether its spanning surface crosses the wire or the gap. No electrons have to cross an ideal vacuum gap. In matter, includes the polarization response as well as the vacuum term. Combined with Faraday induction, the displacement term permits source-free electromagnetic waves.
Maxwell's displacement current is the electric-field contribution needed to make Ampère's law consistent with charge conservation. In macroscopic form,The displacement current density has units . Since , it contains the vacuum field term and, in matter, the polarization-current contribution. It need not represent free charge moving through a material.
Taking the divergence gives . Gauss's law, , then yields the continuity equation . Without the displacement term, Ampère's original law would incorrectly require every current distribution to be divergence-free even while charge accumulates.
A charging parallel-plate capacitor makes this concrete. Ignoring fringing, , so the displacement current across its dielectric gap is , equal to the conduction electric current in its wire. The integral lawtherefore gives the same answer whether the spanning surface cuts the wire or passes through the gap. Together with Faraday's law, this field term also permits self-consistent electromagnetic waves in vacuum, with speed .
Integral conservation. Electric charge cannot be created by ordinary transport. For a fixed volume , outward current reduces the enclosed charge:Here has units and has units . Applying the divergence theorem to an arbitrary volume gives the local continuity equationIt is local charge conservation: a net outflow must be accompanied by depletion. In a steady state, . Integrating over a small circuit junction then gives Kirchhoff's current law. During a transient the junction can accumulate charge and the incoming and outgoing conduction currents need not yet match.
Consistency with Maxwell's equations. In vacuum, take the divergence of the Ampère-Maxwell equation:Gauss's law, , reproduces the continuity equation. The displacement current term makes these equations consistent for time-dependent charge distributions, such as a charging capacitor. It is not a stream of free charges across the insulating gap. In matter, and give the analogous conservation law for free charge; total charge also includes bound charge.
Approximate the surface layer as locally steady with small horizontal advective acceleration. Write and . Since , the drag-modified force balance can be inverted exactly:The geostrophic wind is , so the ageostrophic flow isIts cross-isobar component is , always towards lower pressure, in either hemisphere. Thus the surface wind spirals into a cyclone and out of an anticyclone. In the northern hemisphere, the nearly tangential circulation is counterclockwise around the low and clockwise around the high; those rotations reverse in the southern hemisphere. The original force diagrams below show pressure, drag and Coriolis force closing to zero at the east side of each system.
Surface convergence into a low requires upward motion out of the friction layer by the continuity equation; divergence from a high requires subsidence. In unsaturated adiabatic motion the rising parcel expands and cools, while descending air compresses and warms. The relevant warming or cooling relative to its surroundings depends on the environmental stratification, and latent heating can modify the ascending-air result.
For otherwise unsupported weather systems this is quasi-geostrophic Ekman spin-down: drag dissipates kinetic energy, convergence tends to fill a low and divergence tends to erode a high. In a simple column with upward velocity at its base and negligible vertical velocity aloft, cyclonic vorticity decreases because ; the opposite sign weakens anticyclonic vorticity. Cooling beneath a fixed upper-level pressure also tends to raise the surface pressure through the hydrostatic column, while warming tends to lower it. Real baroclinic development, upper-level mass transport and condensation can sustain or deepen a cyclone despite surface friction, so temperature changes alone do not prove a universal decay rate.
Put and . With and complex dependence , the northward momentum equation and continuity equation giveThus . Write the signed phase velocity as , so . The eastward momentum equation is the transverse geostrophic balance . HenceThe decaying sign is selected by which side of contains the ocean. For an eastern boundary the ocean occupies , so decay offshore requires . Consequently the Kelvin wave moves northwards in the northern hemisphere and southwards in the southern hemisphere, with the coast respectively on its right and left. The positive offshore decay length isThe sign of reverses the propagation direction and the sign of relative to , but not the speed or offshore decay length. The real physical fields are the real parts of the complex solution. At the equator itself this local f-plane coastal solution loses its finite trapping scale.
For a real potential, the Time-dependent Schrödinger equation isMultiply this equation by , multiply its conjugate by , and subtract. The potential terms cancel and the product rule converts the remaining terms into a divergence. ConsequentlyThis is the probability current and its continuity equation.
Put . The supplied radial Laplacian formula gives for . Also . Therefore the free-particle equation is satisfied whenThe apparent singularity at zero is removable: extends smoothly there and satisfies the same equation. Since is real and the time dependence is only a common phase, is real, so . The density is time-independent, proving the continuity equation explicitly. This is a standing spherical wave with zero net radial current.
Past exam of the quantum field theory course of the University of Oxford 2018 1 a Solution 2026-10-25
Divide the infinitesimal variation by its constant parameter , so the transformation generator is . The variation of the kinetic term isand that of is . Thus the Lagrangian density is invariant pointwise, without a nonzero boundary current. The finite transformation is a rotation of the two real scalar fields, giving an SO(2) global symmetry in field theory.
Noether's theorem supplies the parameter-independent Noether currentIts divergence is , since the first-derivative terms cancel. Both fields obey the same Klein-Gordon equation, so this vanishes on solutions. With spatial boundary conditions giving zero flux at infinity, the Noether charge isA finite box with periodic boundary conditions works as well. The spatial integral is conserved because the local continuity equation converts its time derivative into a boundary flux; neither vanishing local current nor constant individual fields is required. Equivalently, transforms as , exhibiting the equivalent global U(1) symmetry and fixing the sign of the generator.
Past exam of the quantum field theory course of the University of Oxford 2022 3 b Solution 2026-10-25
Define the constant Dirac gamma matrix combinations and . The Hamiltonian operator isEvaluate its commutator with using the bilocal result in a. The mass term cancels immediately when , because its two Dirac delta distributions coincide. For the derivative term first keep the two points distinct:The terms in which the derivative acts on cancel against each other; the derivative of the second Dirac delta distribution remains. ThusThe last equality is integration by parts, or the defining derivative rule for a distribution. Consequently the literal conserved current whose divergence equals isBecause a commutator of two Hermitian operators is anti-Hermitian, this includes . The physical Hermitian Dirac current is instead , so . The Heisenberg equation of motion now givesThis establishes the continuity equation directly from the required commutator, without assuming the Dirac equation or invoking the Noether theorem as a substitute for the computation.
Past exam of the quantum field theory course of the University of Oxford 2022 3 c Solution 2026-10-25
The Hamiltonian operator is invariant under the constant global phase symmetry , . The Noether current of this unitary group is the Dirac current obtained in b. For fields with vanishing flux at infinity, or periodic boundary conditions, the divergence theorem and that continuity equation implyThe canonical anticommutation relations also give and , hence . Reversing the parameter sign recovers the stated phase convention. Thus generates the global phase symmetry. With normal ordering, counts fermions minus antiparticles, rather than the sum of both populations. Its conservation law is Dirac fermion number conservation. A position-dependent phase produces derivative terms in this free Hamiltonian operator; the symmetry under discussion is global.
For a normalized state the position probability density is . With a real potential, the Time-dependent Schrödinger equation and its conjugate giveThis is the continuity equation . Integrating over the line yields under the stated decay. A real-valued wave function gives , so its instantaneous current vanishes; the same is true up to a spatially constant phase.
Put . Complete the square in the overlap:The Gaussian integral is , also for complex displacement by analytic continuation. HenceThe product of square roots fixes the branch convention implicit in the printed square root of . At the norm squared is , which becomes one for the stated . In particularThe centre is and its position variance is .
When differentiating in , keep fixed on the chosen constant-radius orbit. ThenSubstitution gives . Since , the chain rule gives . Continue continuously along the time orbit; its sign after a full orbit supplies the usual oscillator zero-point phase. The case of zero displacement is obtained as a limit, since the separate printed and expressions are singular at .
Finally . For real nonzero this isThe printed final current omits the Gaussian normalization factor . Retaining that factor is required both by the normalized state and by the continuity equation. This current is the Gaussian probability density times the velocity of its moving centre, .
For the Schrödinger equation with a real scalar potential and no vector potential, the probability current isTogether with the probability density , it satisfies the continuity equation . Substituting givesA complex wavefunction requires both its real and imaginary parts in the sketch. Choosing the irrelevant constant phase so that is real, they are and , while the probability density is horizontal. It is the spatial phase gradient of a Schrodinger wavefunction that determines the sign of the probability current. In particular, and have the same real part but opposite probability currents, so the slope of the real part cannot determine the direction.
A nonzero plane wave on the whole real line is not square integrable. The displayed density is understood with box normalization, generalized normalization, or as a local description of a broad wave packet; it does not define a normalized probability distribution on the whole line.
The Time-dependent Schrödinger equation, with the Hamiltonian for a particle of mass in a real potential energy , isA stationary state is an energy eigenstate: its wavefunction evolves by a single global phase,Its probability density is independent of time. For a normalized wavefunction, the probability density and probability current areSubtracting the complex conjugate of the Time-dependent Schrödinger equation, multiplied by , from the original equation multiplied by cancels the real potential energy terms and gives the continuity equation . Thus measures signed probability flow in the positive direction.
At the midpoint the second sine vanishes, whereas the derivative of the first sine vanishes. Thus the wavefunction and its spatial derivative simplify toSubstitution in the probability current givesThe continuity equation, integrated over the left half, gives . The Dirichlet boundary condition makes , and the preceding probability formula givesPositive midpoint current removes probability from the left half. This is precisely the midpoint current of a two-mode box state.
Interference between the first two box modes transfers probability between the two halves; midpoint current is minus the derivative of left-half probability
. Details. The Friedmann-Lemaître-Robertson-Walker metric describes homogeneous, isotropic spatial slices. Here is cosmic time, equal to the proper time of a comoving observer; is the length-valued scale factor; and are dimensionless comoving radial, polar and azimuthal coordinates. The speed of light is , andfor positive, zero and negative cosmological spatial curvature. The convention used makes a squared time interval, with signature ; multiplying the metric by gives the more usual squared-length convention. At fixed , radial proper length is , while a sphere has area .
luminosity distance is defined by for bolometric radiative flux and intrinsic luminosity . Radial null propagation gives . Applying the same path integral to two successive wave crests gives , hence . Each photon loses an energy factor , and their arrival rate loses another. For transparent propagation and isotropic emission,The two redshift factors have distinct physical origins; geometrical dilution alone is insufficient.
With , differentiating yields . Therefore the radial comoving coordinate isThis is independent of any particular matter model; the transverse comoving distance is , which equals only for flat space.
For pressureless matter, the continuity equation integrates to . The cosmological constant is kept separately from this matter density. In the flat Friedmann equation, defineThe flat dust-vacuum Hubble parameter is thereforeIn the equation's convention is mass-equivalent energy density and has units ; the geometrical cosmological constant convention instead writes . The model contains dust and vacuum energy with negligible radiation over the relevant late epochs: “matter-dominated” here does not require matter to exceed vacuum energy today.
The cosmic microwave background supplies a standard ruler through its acoustic scale: the angular positions of the Cosmic microwave background acoustic peaks constrain cosmological spatial curvature, while their relative heights constrain matter and baryon densities. Together with independent distance information, these favour a nearly flat Lambda-CDM model containing substantial cold dark matter and vacuum energy. The cosmic microwave background alone has a geometrical degeneracy between parameters affecting distance to last scattering; its analysis also includes early radiation, which the late-time formula above omits. The nine-year WMAP results were already available as a December 2012 preprint.[ref]
Nine-Year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) Observations: Final Maps and Results by C. L. Bennett and others. Version 1 abstract: combined-data curvature constraint and consistency with the six-parameter Lambda-CDM model
A standardized Type Ia supernova at appreciable redshift is fainter, hence farther in luminosity distance, than in a matter-only Einstein-de Sitter universe with the same local expansion scale. Fitting the supernova Hubble diagram supports late acceleration; in flat dust plus vacuum, is negative for . Light-curve and colour corrections, extinction, calibration, selection bias and possible population evolution must be controlled. The supernova evidence and cosmic microwave background constraints are complementary; together they favour this model without proving that every alternative dark-energy model is impossible.[ref]
Observational Evidence from Supernovae for an Accelerating Universe and a Cosmological Constant by Adam Riess and others. Abstract and cosmological fits of the supernova distance-redshift relation
[ref]For the final comparison, assume , a common and in model (a). ThenThus and the integrands obey . Because all three models are flat, compare the normalization-independent distance , rather than separately normalized coordinates. The luminosity-distance ordering of flat dust-vacuum universes is , henceModel (b) gives the largest received flux, model (c) the smallest. Equalities replace the strict ordering at the endpoint values of the vacuum fraction; all have the same leading local Hubble law as .
Past exam of the theoretical mechanics course of the University of Oxford 2011 B 4 b Solution 2026-10-31
Linearize about rest, with the equilibrium forces already absorbed in the reduced pressure. The quadratic convective acceleration drops out. Since , the component equations areThe scan prints in the continuity equation; the derivative required by incompressibility is .
To eliminate pressure, put and . Taking the vertical component of the curl of momentum givesTaking horizontal divergence of momentum and substituting continuity givesDifferentiate this in and use :One more time derivative, followed by the vorticity relation, yields the Poincaré equation for inertial wavesThis derivation retains all three velocity components, including the transverse component coupled by rotation.
Past exam of the theoretical physics I course of the University of Cambridge 2013 Paper 1 4 Solution 2026-10-20
For a real scalar triplet, with metric signature , differentiating the Lagrangian density gives and . HenceFor a constant internal rotation parameter, the variation isEach bracketed tensor is symmetric in , so its contraction with the antisymmetric symbol vanishes. This rotates the three field components, not the space coordinates; both the kinetic term and common mass term are invariant.
For a first-principles Noether current derivation, temporarily let depend on spacetime. The terms proportional to still cancel, leavingOn a solution of the field equations, the action variation for a compactly supported vanishes after integration by parts. Thus . To match the charges printed in the question, use the equivalent overall sign convention for the SO(3) Noether current of a real scalar tripletArbitrariness of gives three continuity equations. Their charges are exactlyAn overall reversal of all currents is immaterial; the minus sign above keeps the generator convention distinct from the supplied charge convention.
Direct verification is also short:The mass term and the products of equal-type derivatives cancel by antisymmetry; integration by parts produces the boundary term. The charges are conserved when these integrals exist and the net boundary flux vanishes: sufficiently decaying fields on all space, periodic boundary conditions, or suitable symmetry-preserving no-flux boundaries suffice. Arbitrary open boundaries do not. A common constant is necessary for this internal symmetry; its positivity is a stability issue, not needed for the algebraic conservation proof.
Past exam of the theoretical physics I course of the University of Cambridge 2022 2 c Solution 2026-10-18
A constant shift leaves every derivative unchanged, and the density has no undifferentiated . Thus it is exactly invariant under this scalar-field shift symmetry. Localize the shift parameter temporarily to :Integrating the last term by parts once identifies the Noether current for a constant shift with second derivatives:The Euler-Lagrange field equation is , precisely the continuity equation . Therefore the conserved quantity, when the endpoint current vanishes or the field has suitable periodic/decaying conditions, isthe total transverse momentum. More explicitly . The fixed endpoints introduced later can exert transverse forces and break the global shift symmetry of the boundary problem, so vanishing endpoint current must not be inferred merely from fixed displacement.


