Optical momentum of a ray ($p=\mu t,dp/ds=\nabla \mu$)

For a light ray parametrized by arc length $s$, with unit tangent vector $t$ in a smooth positive refractive index $\mu$, the optical momentum is $p=\mu t$. This is the momentum for optical path-length normalization. The Euler-Lagrange equation for Fermat principle, $\int \mu (r)|r^{\prime }(\tau )|d\tau$, gives $d(\mu t)/ds=\nabla \mu$. Therefore an index independent of $z$ conserves $p_z=\mu dz/ds$. In coordinates $r(z),\theta (z)$ this is $\mu /\sqrt{1+r^{\prime 2}+r^2{\theta }^{\prime 2}}$, the first integral supplied by the Beltrami identity for several dependent variables.