Let be the cotangent bundle projection. Its canonical one-form on a cotangent bundle is defined intrinsically by , so locally . Choose the position-first symplectic form
It is closed by and nondegenerate, since contraction with is , which vanishes only when both coefficient sets vanish. The intrinsic definition of makes this symplectic form independent of coordinates.
Use the convention . Then the Hamiltonian vector field and the Poisson bracket are
so . Choosing and gives the same equations; choosing only one of these sign changes would reverse the flow.
For the geodesic Hamiltonian, Hamilton's equations give
Put , so . Differentiating gives
Consequently,
Symmetrizing the velocity factors and raising the first index converts this to
These Christoffel symbols are those of the Levi-Civita connection. Thus a Hamiltonian integral curve of a vector field projects to an affinely parametrized geodesic. Conversely, an affinely parametrized geodesic lifts by to an integral curve of a vector field of , since reversing the calculation proves both Hamilton's equations. This is the geodesic flow on the cotangent bundle. The conserved Hamiltonian is half the squared speed, and the zero-energy case gives the constant geodesics.
A quadratic homogeneous polynomial depends only on the symmetric part of its coefficient matrix. Accordingly take its unique symmetric coefficients of a quadratic polynomial, . This is the standard implicit convention in identifying such polynomials with symmetric tensors. If an arbitrary nonsymmetric representative were allowed, the literal equivalence would fail: in Euclidean , , and all other components zero give the zero polynomial, which has zero Poisson bracket with every function, whereas the lowered coefficient array is not a Killing tensor because it is not symmetric.
Lower the indices of the symmetric coefficient tensor using the Riemannian metric. Since ,
Along an affinely parametrized geodesic, metric compatibility and imply
Here parentheses mean normalized symmetrization over all indicated indices. The left side is by the Hamiltonian vector field convention. Therefore a rank-two Killing tensor, defined by symmetry and , gives a quadratic geodesic first integral.
Conversely, if everywhere on , the last cubic expression vanishes for every at every point, because the Riemannian metric identifies tangent and cotangent spaces invertibly. A symmetric trilinear form is determined by its diagonal cubic polynomial: equivalently, compare its coefficients, or polarize the cubic. Hence . This proves both directions:
with symmetry understood on the coefficient representative from the outset. The equivalence is local and does not require geodesic completeness.
For the final construction, the antisymmetric differential two-form is a Killing-Yano two-form. Its defining equation says . Antisymmetry of also says , so the three-index tensor is totally antisymmetric.
The proposed tensor is symmetric, since it is the inner product of the covectors and :
There is a useful geometric proof of its Killing tensor equation. Along any affinely parametrized geodesic, define . Then
The first term vanishes by antisymmetry in , and the second by the geodesic equation. Thus is carried by parallel transport. By metric compatibility, its squared norm is constant, and
Every tangent vector is the initial velocity of a local geodesic, so differentiation at the initial point gives for every . The same cubic-coefficient argument proves
This proves that the square of a Killing-Yano two-form is a rank-two Killing tensor and supplies a nonnegative quadratic geodesic first integral. The argument also explains the conserved quantity: it is the squared norm of a covector that the Killing-Yano two-form makes parallel along every geodesic.
A quadratic homogeneous polynomial in the fibre variables of the cotangent bundle is a first integral of the geodesic Hamiltonian exactly when its symmetric lowered coefficients form a rank-two Killing tensor. For , the Poisson bracket is , so the equivalence follows by comparing cubic coefficients at every point.