TransWikia.com

Does energy conservation imply time invariance?

Physics Asked on June 29, 2021

This is similar to this question: Is the converse of Noether's first theorem true: Every conservation law has a symmetry?. However, the answer given there is very technical and general. I am only interested in the specific case of energy conservation (mostly because dark energy seems to break energy conservation / time invariance).

One Answer

It is actually the other way around. Time translation symmetry refers to Energy conservation. We define the Hamiltonian as $$normalsize {H} = Large{Sigma_i}normalsize{p_ioverset{.}{q_i} - L} $$ This says that the Hamiltonian in other words the energy is conserved when the Lagrangian has no explicit time dependance. i.e. $$frac{dH}{dt}=frac{partial L}{partial t}$$

This means as long as the laws of motion are time translation invariant, the energy of the system in consideration is conserved.

The converse is true as well. As you can see the equations say that

$$frac{dH}{dt}=frac{partial L}{partial t}$$

Which means that if energy is conserved it means that the Lagrangian has no explicit time dependance. Now even though it might seem in certain systems that the energy is not conserved, we must remember that the system is not necessarily isolated, so when we see that the energy is not conserved it just means that the flow of energy is from the surroundings

Answered by SK Dash on June 29, 2021

Add your own answers!

Ask a Question

Get help from others!

© 2024 TransWikia.com. All rights reserved. Sites we Love: PCI Database, UKBizDB, Menu Kuliner, Sharing RPP