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.

For a time-independent Hamiltonian $H$, the explicit time partial derivative of a smooth time-dependent conserved quantity is again a conserved quantity. Here conservation means the identity $D_{t}f=f_t+\{f,H\}=0$ on phase space, with the standard Poisson bracket. Differentiating this identity at fixed canonical coordinates givesBecause $H_t=0$, this is exactly $D_t(f_t)=0$, proving the assertion. Iteration gives the same result for all higher explicit time partial derivatives for which the differentiations are defined. By Hamiltonian energy balance, requiring $H$ itself to be a conserved quantity on all trajectories is equivalent to $H_t=0$.

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.