Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2018 / ii / Paper 4 / 8B / Solution

Let a one-parameter infinitesimal transformation be $\delta q_i=ϵX_i(q,t)$ and suppose its change in the Lagrangian is a total derivative,With canonical momentum $p_i=\partial \mathcal{L}/\partial {\dot{q}}_i$, the chain rule and the Euler-Lagrange equations give, along a motion,Comparison with the assumed total derivative proves Noether theorem:

The given Lagrangian has no explicit time dependence, so its energy function is conserved:It is also invariant under the dilation $(x,y)\mapsto (e^{ϵ}x,e^{ϵ}y)$: the velocities and $y$ all scale by the same factor, while $x/y$ is unchanged. The generator is $(X_x,X_y)=(x,y)$ and $F=0$. SinceNoether's theorem supplies the second first integralThe integrals $E$ and $D$ are independent on an open dense subset of phase space.