Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2013 / iii / Paper 6 / 1 / e / Solution

Let $A(t)=D_{(x,v)}(X,V)$ along one characteristic curve. Differentiating the characteristic equation gives $\dot{A}=D_{z}b(t,X,V)A$, $A(0)=I_6$, with $b=(V,F)$. The Liouville formula for a fundamental matrix then gives the phase-space flow JacobianIndeed $\mathrm{tr}{D}_{z}b={\mathrm{div}}_{x,v}(v,F)={\nabla }_v\cdot F$, since $v$ is independent of $x$. Differentiation proves $\dot{J}=({\nabla }_v\cdot F)J$. If that divergence vanishes, $J(0)=1$ gives $\boxed{J\equiv 1}$ and the flow preserves Lebesgue measure on phase space.