Hamiltonian conservation law

Along a trajectory generated by the Hamiltonian $H$,Thus a time-independent observable is conserved exactly when its Poisson bracket with $H$ vanishes.

Along Hamilton's equations, spatial derivatives of the Hamiltonian function cancel in its total time derivative. Thus $dH/dt={\partial }_{t}H$. An autonomous Hamiltonian function is conserved; explicit time dependence generally prevents conservation even though phase space is still preserved.

For an autonomous Lagrangian $L(x,\dot{x})$, define its action $A=\int Ldt$ and Hamiltonian $H=\dot{x}{L}_{\dot{x}}-L$. The chain rule givesThus the identity holds along forced trajectories as well as solutions of the homogeneous Euler-Lagrange equation. Explicit time dependence adds $-{\partial }_{t}L$; stochastic work requires a consistent regularization or the Stratonovich chain rule.