Groups of canonical transformations and the virial-Noether theorem (Q1090114)

Studied are one-parameter Lie groups of transformations leaving the symplectic structure form invariant, but not strictly invariant, i.e. the canonical two-form is transformed into a multiple of itself. It is shown that this property is equivalent to form invariance of the equations of motion. In particular a complete characterization of the infinitesimal generator of such one-parameter groups is given and proven that it is given by a linear combination of a Hamiltonian vector field and the infinitesimal generator of the dilations. The usual proof of the virial theorem is based on the study of the time evolution of the infinitesimal generator of the dilations. Therefore, the one-parameter groups of canonical transformations are connected to the virial theorem. Also, there is derived a very general form of the virial theorem, which includes Noether's theorem as a special case. Finally, the virial theorem is applied to the Toda lattice system. By a combined scale-translation transformation group the power of the method is illustrated.