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-1 votes
0 answers
78 views

Is there a straightforward simplified proof of energy conservation from time translation symmetry?

Electric charge conservation is easily proven from electric potential gauge symmetry, as follows: The potential energy of an electric charge is proportional to the electric potential at its location. ...
30 votes
6 answers
8k views

Noether Theorem and Energy conservation in classical mechanics

I have a problem deriving the conservation of energy from time translation invariance. The invariance of the Lagrangian under infinitesimal time displacements $t \rightarrow t' = t + \epsilon$ can be ...
3 votes
1 answer
82 views

Does quasi-symmetry preserve the solution of the equation of motion?

In some field theory textbooks, such as the CFT Yellow Book (P40), the authors claim that a theory has a certain symmetry, which means that the action of the theory does not change under the symmetry ...
-3 votes
1 answer
116 views

Noether's theorem by a taste of logic [closed]

I am a mathematician and I asked this question briefly and my question became closed, may be - I don't know - because physicists don't used to apply the method of "proof by contradiction". ...
1 vote
1 answer
59 views

Designing a thought experiment on Noether's Theorem [closed]

By Noether's theorem, in classical physics, conservation of total momentum of a system is result of invariance of physical evolution by translation. So logic says "if" there exists closed ...
6 votes
1 answer
78 views

How do I formulate a quantum version of Hamiltonian flow/symplectomorphisms in phase space to have a "geometric", quantum version of Noether's theorem

I'm currently exploring how Noether's theorem is formulated in the Hamiltonian formalism. I've found that canonical transformations which conserve volumes in phase space, these isometric deformations ...
3 votes
5 answers
938 views

What is the point of knowing symmetries, conservation quantities of a system?

I think this kind of question has been asked, but i couldn’t find it. Well i have already know things like symmetries, conserved quantities and Noether’s theorem, as well as their role in particle ...
5 votes
1 answer
592 views

Does the Hamiltonian formalism yield more Noether charges than the Lagrangian formalism?

In Lagrangian formalism, we consider point transformations $Q_i=Q_i(q,t)$ because the Euler-Lagrange equation is covariant only under these transformations. Point transformations do not explicitly ...
1 vote
0 answers
195 views

Dynamics of particles and fields on the torus: references

In some situations (e.g. molecular dynamics situations, Euclidean QFT, cosmology), a common trick to eliminate boundary effects or to provide an infrared cutoff is to use periodic boundary conditions. ...
1 vote
0 answers
54 views

Doubt Regarding Noether's theorem for time-dependent systems

I'm having problems showing Noether's theorem when the lagrangian is time dependent. I'm trying to do it not using infinitesimal transformations from the beginning, but continuous transformations of a ...
2 votes
1 answer
72 views

Some doubts about action symmetry

We know that Symmetry of the Lagrangian ($\delta L = 0$) always yields some conservation law. Now, if $\delta L \neq 0$, that doesn't mean we won't have conservation law, because if we can show action ...
13 votes
6 answers
1k views

(A modification to) Jon Pérez Laraudogoita’s "Beautiful Supertask" — What assumptions of Noether's theorem fail?

I am curious about the following (physically unrealizable) scenario involving a supertask described here: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/spacetime-supertasks/#ClasMechSupe. The original paper is ...
15 votes
5 answers
3k views

Why does time-translational symmetry imply that energy (and not something else) is conserved?

I'm trying to understand Noether's theorem from an intuitive perspective. I know that time-translational symmetry implies the conservation of energy. Is it possible to convince oneself that time-...
28 votes
2 answers
9k views

Invariance of Lagrangian in Noether's theorem

Often in textbooks Noether's theorem is stated with the assumption that the Lagrangian needs to be invariant $\delta L=0$. However, given a lagrangian $L$, we know that the Lagrangians $\alpha L$ (...
1 vote
1 answer
135 views

In a simple case of a particle in a uniform gravitational field, do we have translation invariance or not?

Consider a system where a particle is placed in a uniform gravitational field $\vec{F} = -mg\,\vec{e}_{z}$. The dynamics of this are clearly invariant under translations. When we take $z\rightarrow z+...

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