Apply preservation of Poisson brackets to the coordinate functions. It gives
Conversely, the entries of are exactly the Poisson brackets between all transformed coordinate functions. The displayed relations therefore say , which implies the canonical transformation condition and, by the chain rule, preservation of every Poisson bracket. Thus all three conditions are equivalent:
In particular the original coordinate bracket is with the chosen Poisson bracket convention.
Under the given rank hypothesis, the necessary and sufficient local condition is
Vanishing only at the single point would not suffice: an extension preserves the coordinate Poisson brackets throughout its domain. Necessity follows from the coordinate criterion just proved.
For sufficiency, put and . Because the symplectic form is a nondegenerate bilinear form at every point, the independent differentials give independent fields . They commute, since
Moreover , so they span the tangent spaces of the -dimensional fibres of the submersion . Choose a local section transverse to those fibres. Its joint local flow defines coordinates by
The inverse function theorem makes a local diffeomorphism, and commuting flows give .
In these coordinates . Each flow preserves the symplectic form, by Cartan's magic formula. Thus its coefficients are independent of , and
where is a closed differential two-form on the base. On a small ball, the Poincare lemma gives , with . Define
Then
Consequently the original coordinates are extended to the required canonical transformation , with the prescribed first half . Its Jacobian matrix is invertible by construction. This is the canonical completion of independent commuting functions. For the printed data, the flows and resulting canonical transformation can be taken , which is sufficient to preserve the symplectic form; smooth data give smooth coordinates.
Use the standard symplectic form . A canonical transformation is a diffeomorphism preserving this symplectic form:
Thus, writing , the defining identity is . For a local canonical transformation, require this on its open domain. In particular preservation of the symplectic form, rather than just of phase-space volume, is the condition in dimensions greater than two.
Throughout these solutions choose the Hamiltonian vector field convention . It gives , and agrees with the positive coordinate Poisson bracket used below. The opposite convention for Hamiltonian vector fields changes signs in the Lie bracket of vector fields identity but none of the commuting or integrability conclusions.
A function is an integral of motion of when it is constant along every trajectory of the Hamiltonian flow. Infinitesimally,
The antisymmetry of a Lie bracket of the Poisson bracket gives . Hence is also an integral of motion of .
For the commuting assertion, , because is closed. The contraction identity for a Lie bracket of vector fields then gives
Since the symplectic form is a nondegenerate bilinear form at every point, the Hamiltonian vector fields commute:
With the chosen convention the general identity is . Equivalently, it follows by applying the Jacobi identity for the Poisson bracket to an arbitrary test function. Local flows commute whenever both compositions are defined; no global completeness assumption is needed.
On a -dimensional symplectic manifold, a completely integrable Hamiltonian system has first integrals in involution whose differentials are independent almost everywhere, hence on a dense open regular set:
An equivalent formulation allows to be a function of the commuting independent integrals. The independence requirement is on the regular set, permitting exceptional critical points and singular fibres.
For example, on take with and . The disjoint coordinate pairs make all Poisson brackets zero, and the differentials are independent whenever no pair vanishes. Replacing by is an invertible linear map of this list. Thus for give the required example. Irrational frequency ratios affect orbit density, but not complete integrability.
Fix the convention for a Hamiltonian vector field. Nondegeneracy of the symplectic form gives one unique smooth for each smooth real-valued function . Define the Poisson bracket by
In coordinates with , this is . Thus the sign convention is explicit and agrees with the usual coordinate Poisson bracket. By Cartan's magic formula, . The contraction–Lie derivative commutator identity now gives
Hence the Hamiltonian Lie algebra homomorphism is . It is linear and onto the space of Hamiltonian vector fields by definition. For completeness, the Jacobi identity for the bracket on functions follows from closure of : evaluating on and using the displayed commutator relation gives the cyclic Jacobi sum zero. Thus this really is a map of Lie algebras, not just a bracket-preserving notation.
Its kernel is determined by nondegeneracy:
On a connected manifold these are precisely the real constants; on a disconnected manifold the constant may differ on each component. Therefore the quotient by these functions is isomorphic to the Lie algebra of Hamiltonian vector fields. The printed “homeomorphis” is interpreted as homomorphism: the map before taking this quotient is not an isomorphism because of its nontrivial kernel. The alternative convention requires a corresponding bracket sign change to retain this homomorphism.
First-class reduction. A regular set of independent constraints is first class when their Poisson brackets vanish on the constraint surface, equivalently locally . The coefficients can be functions on phase space. With the generator , an infinitesimal canonical gauge transformation is
Each independent first-class condition removes one phase-space dimension, and quotienting its independent gauge orbit removes another. Thus the regular physical phase space has
This regular first-class phase-space reduction requires independent constraints and gauge directions. The count can fail at singular strata or for reducible constraints; first-class closure alone does not guarantee independence. For a concrete counterexample to counting redundant equations, take two canonical pairs and , . Both equations are first class, but there is only one independent condition and one gauge direction. The surviving pair has dimension two, whereas blindly substituting gives zero.
Oscillator symplectic form. The center-of-mass pair describes translations and total momentum. The nonzero Fourier coefficients describe the standing-wave modes compatible with free-end Neumann boundary conditions; their reality condition is , and in the standard normalization. For , regarding as a complex coordinate makes its conjugate momentum . Equivalently write . Up to a total derivative, its kinetic term is , a real canonical form. Inverting this oscillator symplectic form of an open string gives
The zero oscillator commutes with nonzero oscillators but is not independent of : . Brackets between the center pair and independent nonzero oscillators vanish.
The quadratic constraints obey
For example, the two terms in the bracket with give equal contributions after relabelling . Applying this identity to both factors of gives
This classical Virasoro constraint algebra has no central term and closes on the constraints, hence is first class. For , the oscillator gauge transformation is
Reality is respected when .
Light-cone reduction and mass. Choose light-cone coordinates ; a vector square is , with transverse components. On the proposed gauge slice , the variation becomes
For , every nonzero-mode gauge parameter has an invertible coefficient, so the conditions locally fix the corresponding gauge freedom. Globally this is the usual patch in which is an admissible worldsheet clock; it is not a claim about strings for which that coordinate has turning points. The zero-mode reparameterization is left over.
On that slice the nonzero Virasoro constraints are linear in the longitudinal oscillators:
No nonzero longitudinal oscillator remains independent. The residual action is
This residual mass-shell action in light-cone string gauge displays the remaining zero-mode constraint. At the quantum level normal ordering replaces its oscillator term by . One can further set equal to time and solve for the light-cone Hamiltonian .
Canonical quantization gives the transverse relations
Here , annihilate the oscillator vacuum, and create excitations. Define for . The string level operator is
Thus it counts oscillator number weighted by mode number, and has nonnegative integer eigenvalues. The residual mass-shell condition gives
The constant is the normal-ordering constant of a string, or intercept, not an extra classical tension. In the usual Lorentz-invariant critical bosonic string, level one carries the transverse polarizations of a massless vector. A massive vector would need polarizations; the longitudinal one is not present. Lorentz consistency therefore requires that this vector level be massless, giving . Equivalently the regularized transverse zero-point value gives . This critical-vector assumption in the string intercept argument concerns the usual critical quantum theory. In the lone transverse level-one polarization transforms trivially under the transverse rotation group; a massive scalar interpretation is not excluded by counting. Thus the stated masslessness conclusion is not a consequence of polarization counting for arbitrary . An arbitrary intercept in a transverse oscillator model also need not define the usual covariant critical theory.
The full self-dual massless spectrum. In the closed-string sector, and are the independent nonnegative integer oscillator levels of the two chiral sectors. The integer quantizes center momentum around the circle, , and counts how many times the string winds it. At the self-dual circle , zero mass requires
Both levels are nonnegative, so their sum is at most two. Exhausting these possibilities gives the massless spectrum at the bosonic self-dual circle:
The last family is easy to miss because the uncompactified ground state is a tachyon; its positive compact energy cancels that negative contribution at these charges. There are no other possibilities: at level sum one, forces both charges to be ; at sum zero, gives exactly the four listed pairs. With transverse oscillators the number of independent massless polarizations is , hence 676 in the critical bosonic theory. The circle oscillator is included among the components; it should not be discarded when interpreting the lower-dimensional scalar states.
Let be the cotangent bundle projection. Its canonical one-form on a cotangent bundle is defined intrinsically by , so locally . Choose the position-first symplectic form
It is closed by and nondegenerate, since contraction with is , which vanishes only when both coefficient sets vanish. The intrinsic definition of makes this symplectic form independent of coordinates.
Use the convention . Then the Hamiltonian vector field and the Poisson bracket are
so . Choosing and gives the same equations; choosing only one of these sign changes would reverse the flow.
For the geodesic Hamiltonian, Hamilton's equations give
Put , so . Differentiating gives
Consequently,
Symmetrizing the velocity factors and raising the first index converts this to
These Christoffel symbols are those of the Levi-Civita connection. Thus a Hamiltonian integral curve of a vector field projects to an affinely parametrized geodesic. Conversely, an affinely parametrized geodesic lifts by to an integral curve of a vector field of , since reversing the calculation proves both Hamilton's equations. This is the geodesic flow on the cotangent bundle. The conserved Hamiltonian is half the squared speed, and the zero-energy case gives the constant geodesics.
A quadratic homogeneous polynomial depends only on the symmetric part of its coefficient matrix. Accordingly take its unique symmetric coefficients of a quadratic polynomial, . This is the standard implicit convention in identifying such polynomials with symmetric tensors. If an arbitrary nonsymmetric representative were allowed, the literal equivalence would fail: in Euclidean , , and all other components zero give the zero polynomial, which has zero Poisson bracket with every function, whereas the lowered coefficient array is not a Killing tensor because it is not symmetric.
Lower the indices of the symmetric coefficient tensor using the Riemannian metric. Since ,
Along an affinely parametrized geodesic, metric compatibility and imply
Here parentheses mean normalized symmetrization over all indicated indices. The left side is by the Hamiltonian vector field convention. Therefore a rank-two Killing tensor, defined by symmetry and , gives a quadratic geodesic first integral.
Conversely, if everywhere on , the last cubic expression vanishes for every at every point, because the Riemannian metric identifies tangent and cotangent spaces invertibly. A symmetric trilinear form is determined by its diagonal cubic polynomial: equivalently, compare its coefficients, or polarize the cubic. Hence . This proves both directions:
with symmetry understood on the coefficient representative from the outset. The equivalence is local and does not require geodesic completeness.
For the final construction, the antisymmetric differential two-form is a Killing-Yano two-form. Its defining equation says . Antisymmetry of also says , so the three-index tensor is totally antisymmetric.
The proposed tensor is symmetric, since it is the inner product of the covectors and :
There is a useful geometric proof of its Killing tensor equation. Along any affinely parametrized geodesic, define . Then
The first term vanishes by antisymmetry in , and the second by the geodesic equation. Thus is carried by parallel transport. By metric compatibility, its squared norm is constant, and
Every tangent vector is the initial velocity of a local geodesic, so differentiation at the initial point gives for every . The same cubic-coefficient argument proves
This proves that the square of a Killing-Yano two-form is a rank-two Killing tensor and supplies a nonnegative quadratic geodesic first integral. The argument also explains the conserved quantity: it is the squared norm of a covector that the Killing-Yano two-form makes parallel along every geodesic.
For the real scalar field, the mostly-plus Minkowski metric gives a positive kinetic energy. Its canonical momentum and Hamiltonian operator are
The Euler-Lagrange field equation is , or . Canonical quantization of a real scalar field promotes the fields to Hermitian operators and replaces the equal-time Poisson brackets by canonical commutation relations:
The Heisenberg equation of motion then gives and , so the classical field equation remains an operator identity. Products at coincident points need a regulator; equivalently, the field is an operator-valued distribution.
Resolve the free field into positive- and negative-frequency plane waves. With and ,
Reality pairs the two terms by Hermitian conjugation. The equal-time canonical commutation relations are equivalent to
For example, the two mixed terms in each supply half the Dirac delta function. Thus the normalization is fixed, not optional. Each independent mode is a quantum harmonic oscillator, with and its annihilation operator and creation operator.
Choose the Fock vacuum by . Repeated creation operators construct the bosonic Fock space. Substitution into the Hamiltonian operator yields
where a finite volume can be used as a regulator. Normal ordering sets the flat-space vacuum reference to zero. The spatial momentum operator is
In particular, and . A one-particle state therefore has positive energy, momentum , and invariant mass . A scalar field transforms in the trivial spin representation, so its particles have spin zero. Because the field is real there is only one set of oscillators: the particle is its own antiparticle, with no distinct conserved particle-minus-antiparticle charge. The free theory does conserve its occupation-number sum, though generic scalar interactions need not.
A momentum eigenstate extends throughout space. A localized particle is described by a superposition such as
Its wave packet evolves through the phase ; a narrow packet has group velocity , whose magnitude is at most one. Localization and dispersion concern these superpositions, rather than classical trajectories attached to individual field modes.
Relativistic spacetime behavior is encoded by microcausality. Directly from the oscillator commutators,
This is a Lorentz-invariant distribution and vanishes at equal time. Any spacelike separation can be transformed to an equal-time separation, so for spacelike . Thus local operations at spacelike-separated points commute. The vacuum Wightman function need not vanish outside the light cone, but that correlation does not transmit a controllable signal. The Feynman propagator is
which propagates positive energy forward and negative energy backward in the time-ordered product. For causal response one uses the retarded Green function, whose support lies in or on the future light cone.
Finally, commuting creation operators imply
The multiparticle state is symmetric under the particle exchange operator, which is Bose statistics. For a normalized single mode, the occupation states are with : any number of identical bosons can occupy it. There is no Pauli exclusion principle for these particles. This construction agrees with the Spin-statistics theorem relating integer spin to bosonic exchange symmetry under relativistic locality and positive-energy assumptions. It demonstrates the required scalar case without assuming that theorem as the quantization prescription.
The quantized real scalar field describes positive-energy, mass-, spin-zero bosons that are their own antiparticles; commuting creation operators give Bose statistics, and local field commutators enforce microcausality.
Use the mostly-plus Minkowski metric, and write for equality on the constraint surface. Assume that the mechanical constraints are locally independent. They are first-class constraints when
Thus their Poisson brackets vanish on the constraint surface, and their Hamiltonian flows preserve that surface. The structure functions of a constraint algebra may depend on the phase space point. The finite real span of the constraints is a Lie algebra if it closes with constant structure coefficients, in a suitable choice of generators. The Jacobi identity then gives the usual conditions on the structure constants of a Lie algebra. With general structure functions the finite real span need not close, even though the Poisson bracket of all smooth functions is itself a Lie bracket.
To see the gauge invariance directly, let generate a canonical gauge transformation:
The variation of the phase-space action integrand is
The second term cancels without using the equations of motion. Taking to vanish at the temporal boundaries leaves the action invariant. Arbitrary functions therefore relate different descriptions of the same physical motion. This reasoning also works with structure functions; constant structure coefficients are only needed for the finite-dimensional Lie algebra claim.
For a closed string, choose and periodic fields. A convenient Nambu-Goto phase-space action is
Here and are Lagrange multipliers. The Nambu–Goto phase-space constraints are and , with canonical Poisson brackets
Let . Differentiating the periodic Dirac delta function gives
The opposite signs in and cancel these terms, so . Replace the original constraints by the equivalent chiral densities
Their mixed Poisson brackets vanish. Choose opposite Fourier orientations for the two sectors:
The chiral constraint algebra of a closed string is
Each is the Witt algebra: the vector fields on a circle satisfy . Fourier expansion identifies each real algebra, with , with the Lie algebra of vector fields on the circle. The two commuting copies give , not a quantum central extension.
For an open string, allowed boundary conditions must remove the endpoint term in the variation of the action, consistently with the allowed endpoint variations. The spatial boundary term is
It expresses the open-string endpoint momentum flux. In the temporal gauge for a string , take a boundary-adapted parametrization with at the ends. Fixing gives , a Dirichlet boundary condition. At the other end allow arbitrary spatial variations; for nonzero these require , a Neumann boundary condition. Also in this temporal gauge for a string, so . The constraint at this free-end string boundary condition reduces to . Hamilton's equation consequently gives there. Since , the free endpoint has spatial speed one. This is the null motion of a free string endpoint.
A straight rotating string with one fixed endpoint supplies the required solution in at least two spatial dimensions. Set , , and
Take . The Hamilton's equations become , which holds because both second derivatives give . The Nambu–Goto phase-space constraints are satisfied by
The endpoint at stays at the origin, while at and the endpoint moves around a circle of radius with angular speed . At each time the whole string lies on a straight radial segment. Its spatial proper length is
The velocity is everywhere perpendicular to the segment, so this also equals the sum of local rest-frame lengths. The induced worldsheet metric becomes degenerate at the null free endpoint, as expected for the limiting free-end solution.
Let be a smooth antisymmetric matrix field. It defines a Poisson bivector through
This Poisson bracket is bilinear, antisymmetric and a derivation in each argument. It defines a Poisson manifold when it also satisfies the Jacobi identity. Apply that identity in the form to the coordinate functions. Since , it gives
This is the coordinate Jacobi condition for a Poisson bivector. It is also sufficient: in the Jacobi identity for arbitrary functions the terms containing second derivatives cancel by antisymmetry, leaving . Thus the coordinate condition captures the whole obstruction.
Now suppose the Poisson bivector is nondegenerate. Write , so , and define the 2-form
An overall minus sign in identifying the symplectic form depends on the convention for Hamiltonian vector fields; it does not affect the closure argument. Differentiating the inverse matrix gives
Contract the coordinate Jacobi identity with . Antisymmetry gives , and similarly for the other terms, hence
The cyclic expression is precisely the coefficient of the exterior derivative . Therefore
Since is antisymmetric and nondegenerate, is a symplectic form. This proves the closure of the inverse of a nondegenerate Poisson bivector. The matrix entries are scalar functions; the codomain in the source's matrix description should be read as the space of antisymmetric matrices, rather than a vector-valued individual entry.
A Hamiltonian evolution equation has the form , where is a functional and the Hamiltonian operator induces a bilinear antisymmetric bracket obeying the Jacobi identity. For a local functional , its variational derivative is the coefficient of a test perturbation after all integrations by parts.
Linearizing about zero drops the cubic term and gives . A plane wave has , so phase velocity and group velocity depend on wavenumber. This proves small-amplitude wave dispersion.
Take
Then and , the required flow. On sufficiently smooth functionals define the Poisson bracket
Variational differentiation and integration are linear, proving linearity in both arguments. Integration by parts and the rapid decay give . The constant skew differential operator also satisfies the Hamiltonian Jacobi condition, so this is indeed a Poisson bracket.
Along the flow, the functional chain rule gives . Thus an autonomous functional is a first integral exactly when its bracket with vanishes identically on phase space. Direct multiplication of the equation by gives
Integrating the resulting local conservation law over the line makes the boundary flux vanish. Hence is conserved and . As a direct check, its variational derivative is , and integration by parts makes .
Solve , . Since , differentiation gives . To see why the Lax equation preserves the spectrum, direct differentiation gives
Thus is an orthogonal similarity, so all eigenvalues and all coefficients of its characteristic polynomial are first integrals.
A -dimensional Hamiltonian system is Liouville integrable when it has functionally independent first integrals, including the Hamiltonian, whose pairwise Poisson brackets vanish, on an open dense regular region.
For the three-particle periodic Toda lattice, take . The proposed Hamiltonian has
which are exactly the equations of motion. Differentiating the new variables gives
The transformation is not canonical. For example
rather than canonical coordinate brackets. Moreover , so the map forgets the common translation of all the and is not an invertible coordinate change on the six-dimensional phase space.
Multiplication of the displayed matrices gives diagonal entries and off-diagonal entries in . Therefore they form the required Lax pair. The three characteristic coefficients are
They are independent first integrals, as permitted without proof. Equivalently one may take
Indeed , and . Their mutual Poisson commutation also follows directly: generates the common translation, and because is conserved.
Work away from , where the inverse-square potential is singular. Variation of the phase-space action gives
The last equation is the constraint imposed by the Lagrange multiplier . The canonical momentum conjugate to is , not . Consequently the nonzero canonical Poisson brackets are
In particular,
With the convention , the Noether charge generating is . Equivalently, the conserved physical energy is ; a convention that calls the energy the time-translation charge absorbs this minus sign into its parameter.
For the dilation charge,
on the constraint surface. Its infinitesimal canonical transformations are
For constant , extending this by preserves the action: the kinetic terms are invariant and scales oppositely to . Thus the dilation acts on time and position with their nonrelativistic relative scaling. Its Poisson bracket with the energy is
Put . Direct variation of the Hamiltonian gives
so
The supplied transformations are generated by the special conformal charge of inverse-square mechanics
Choose
Then even for a time-dependent parameter. Expanding the kinetic-term variation, keeping the terms in , gives
Hence
For a constant parameter only the boundary term remains, identifying as the Noether charge. Independently, the equations of motion give
Using the same canonical Poisson bracket convention,
Together, , and form the sl2R Lie algebra of conformal mechanics. These are time translation, dilation and special conformal transformation. A useful normalization check is the Casimir element
on the constraint surface.