A system influenced by time dependent forces or which is represented in a rotating or non inertial reference frame has a Hamiltonian which depends explicitly on time,
The rate of change of the Hamiltonian is given by
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On using Hamilton's equations of motion this becomes
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The value of the Hamiltonian is not conserved, however the area is.
Proof:
and
not necessarily Hamiltonian. At time
the area of a region of phase space is given by
and at![]()
As
increases from
to
a point
in
is sent to a point
in
so that
can be considered as the initial condition on a trajectory
where
and the transformation from
to
is given by![]()
The area at time
is given by
where
is the Jacobian matrix of the transformation.
We can expand
and
in Taylor series:
![]()
![]()
Then the Jacobian can be written as
Consider![]()
![]()
Hence
on use of Hamilton's equations and area is preserved.