Newtonian Mechanics – Detailed Explanation of Momentum Conservation Laws

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I understand that momentum can be conserved along a certain axis while not along another. If there are forces that are affecting our system in the axis we are interested in that means the momentum along that axis is not conserved since the derivative of momentum is the force. That means if the net force is $0$ then there is no change in the total momentum of the system and if it is not $0$ then there is a change.

How can I identify when the momentum is definitely not conserved and when it is conserved for sure, and how do I identify angular momentum?

Best Answer

If a (mechanical) system is invariant under arbitrary spatial translations in a certain direction (say, the $x$-direction), then the corresponding component of the momentum ($p_x$ in our case) is conserved (i.e. time-independent).

Analogously, if a system is invariant under arbitrary rotations with repect to a certain axis (say, the $z$-axis), then the corresponding angular-momentum component ($L_z$ in this case) is a constant of motion.

Likewise, if the system is time-translation invariant, energy is conserved.

As an example, consider the motion of a particle described by the Lagrangian function $$L(x,y,z,\dot{x},\dot{y},\dot{z})=m(\dot{x}^2+\dot{y}^2+\dot{z}^2)/2-V(z), \tag{1} \label{1}$$ where the potential depends only on the coordinate $z$. The system is obviously invariant under $x\to x+x_0$, $y\to y+y_0$ for arbitrary $x_0, y_0 \in \mathbb{R}$. As a consequence, the momenta $p_x=m\dot{x}$ and $p_y=m \dot{y}$ are conserved. This can be seen explicitly from the equations of motion, $$\begin{align} \frac{d}{dt} \frac{\partial L}{\partial \dot{x}} &= \frac{\partial L}{\partial x} \quad \Rightarrow \quad \frac{d}{dt} (m \dot{x}) = 0, \tag{2} \label{2}\\[5pt] \frac{d}{dt}\frac{\partial L}{\partial \dot{y}} &= \frac{\partial L}{\partial y} \quad \Rightarrow \quad \frac{d}{dt}(m\dot{y})=0. \tag{3} \label{3} \end{align}$$ Because of the $z$-dependence of the potential, $p_z=m\dot{z}$ is not conserved: $$\begin{align}\frac{d}{dt} \frac{\partial L}{\partial \dot{z}}&=\frac{\partial L}{\partial z} \quad \Rightarrow \quad \frac{d}{dt}(m \dot{z}) =-V^\prime(z) \ne 0. \tag{4} \label{4} \end{align}$$ As the Lagrangian \eqref{1} is also invariant under rotations around the $z$-axis by an arbitrary angle $\alpha$, $$ x \to x\cos \alpha + y\sin \alpha , \quad y \to -x\sin \alpha +y \cos \alpha , \quad z \to z, \tag{5} \label{5} $$ the angular momentum $L_z= m (x \dot{y}-y\dot{x})$ is conserved, which can be checked by taking the time-derivative of $L_z$ and using \eqref{2} and \eqref{3}. On the other hand, neither $L_x=m(y \dot{z}-z \dot{y})$ nor $L_y=m(z \dot{x}-x \dot{z})$ are conserved, as the system is not invariant under rotations around the $x$- or $y$-axis.

Finally, as \eqref{1} is invariant under $t \to t+t_0$ for arbitrary $t_0 \in \mathbb{R}$, the energy of the system, given by $$ E= \dot{x} p_x+\dot{y} p_y+\dot{z}p_z-L=m(\dot{x}^2+\dot{y}^2+\dot{z}^2)/2+V(z), \tag{6} \label{6}$$ is also a constant of motion.

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