Past exam of the theoretical physics I course of the University of Cambridge / 2016 / Paper 1 / 3 / a / Solution

Treat $\varphi$ and ${\varphi }^{\ast }$ as independent variables during variation. With Minkowski metric $(+---)$, differentiation with respect to ${\varphi }^{\ast }$ givesThe Euler-Lagrange field equation is therefore $\square \varphi +2ie{A}^{\mu }{\partial }_{\mu }\varphi +ie({\partial }_{\mu }{A}^{\mu })\varphi +m^2\varphi =f$. The static purely temporal potential has ${\partial }_{\mu }{A}^{\mu }={\partial }_{t}V=0$, givingvariation with respect to $\varphi$ gives $(\square -2ie{A}^{\mu }{\partial }_{\mu }+m^2){\varphi }^{\ast }=f(t)$. This is the complex conjugate equation when the driving force is real, as is required for the supplied lagrangian density to be real. For a complex driving amplitude a real source term would instead require conjugate coefficients. The interaction supplied here is linear in the external potential: adding the $e^2{A}_{\mu }{A}^{\mu }|\varphi {|}^2$ term from full minimal coupling would change the problem and its equation of motion.