Noether's theorem

Noether's theorem states that every continuous symmetry of the

action of a physical system with conservative forces has a
corresponding conservation law. This is the first of two theorems (see
Noether's second theorem) published by mathematician Emmy
Noether in 1918.[1] The action of a physical system is the integral over
time of a Lagrangian function, from which the system's behavior can
be determined by the principle of least action. This theorem only
applies to continuous and smooth symmetries of physical space.

Noether's theorem is used in theoretical physics and the calculus of

variations. It reveals the fundamental relation between the symmetries
of a physical system and the conservation laws. It also made modern
theoretical physicists much more focused on symmetries of physical
systems. A generalization of the formulations on constants of motion
in Lagrangian and Hamiltonian mechanics (developed in 1788 and First page of Emmy Noether's article
1833, respectively), it does not apply to systems that cannot be "Invariante Variationsprobleme"
modeled with a Lagrangian alone (e.g., systems with a Rayleigh (1918), where she proved her
dissipation function). In particular, dissipative systems with theorem
continuous symmetries need not have a corresponding conservation
law.

Basic illustrations and background

As an illustration, if a physical system behaves the same regardless of how it is oriented in space (that is, it's
invariant), its Lagrangian is symmetric under continuous rotation: from this symmetry, Noether's theorem
dictates that the angular momentum of the system be conserved, as a consequence of its laws of motion.[2]: 126
The physical system itself need not be symmetric; a jagged asteroid tumbling in space conserves angular
momentum despite its asymmetry. It is the laws of its motion that are symmetric.

As another example, if a physical process exhibits the same outcomes regardless of place or time, then its
Lagrangian is symmetric under continuous translations in space and time respectively: by Noether's theorem,
these symmetries account for the conservation laws of linear momentum and energy within this system,
respectively.[3]: 23 [4]: 261

Noether's theorem is important, both because of the insight it gives into conservation laws, and also as a
practical calculational tool. It allows investigators to determine the conserved quantities (invariants) from the
observed symmetries of a physical system. Conversely, it allows researchers to consider whole classes of
hypothetical Lagrangians with given invariants, to describe a physical system.[2]: 127 As an illustration,
suppose that a physical theory is proposed which conserves a quantity X. A researcher can calculate the types
of Lagrangians that conserve X through a continuous symmetry. Due to Noether's theorem, the properties of
these Lagrangians provide further criteria to understand the implications and judge the fitness of the new
theory.
There are numerous versions of Noether's theorem, with varying degrees of generality. There are natural
quantum counterparts of this theorem, expressed in the Ward–Takahashi identities. Generalizations of
Noether's theorem to superspaces also exist.[5]

Informal statement of the theorem

All fine technical points aside, Noether's theorem can be stated informally as:

If a system has a continuous symmetry property, then there are corresponding quantities whose
values are conserved in time.[6]

A more sophisticated version of the theorem involving fields states that:

To every continuous symmetry generated by local actions there corresponds a conserved current
and vice versa.

The word "symmetry" in the above statement refers more precisely to the covariance of the form that a
physical law takes with respect to a one-dimensional Lie group of transformations satisfying certain technical
criteria. The conservation law of a physical quantity is usually expressed as a continuity equation.

The formal proof of the theorem utilizes the condition of invariance to derive an expression for a current
associated with a conserved physical quantity. In modern terminology, the conserved quantity is called the
Noether charge, while the flow carrying that charge is called the Noether current. The Noether current is
defined up to a solenoidal (divergenceless) vector field.

In the context of gravitation, Felix Klein's statement of Noether's theorem for action I stipulates for the
invariants:[7]

If an integral I is invariant under a continuous group Gρ with ρ parameters, then ρ linearly

independent combinations of the Lagrangian expressions are divergences.

Brief illustration and overview of the concept

The main idea behind Noether's theorem is most easily illustrated by a system with one coordinate and a
continuous symmetry (gray arrows on the diagram).

Consider any trajectory (bold on the diagram) that satisfies the system's laws of motion. That is, the
action governing this system is stationary on this trajectory, i.e. does not change under any local variation
of the trajectory. In particular it would not change under a variation that applies the symmetry flow on a
time segment [t0, t1] and is motionless outside that segment. To keep the trajectory continuous, we use
"buffering" periods of small time to transition between the segments gradually.

The total change in the action now comprises changes brought by every interval in play. Parts, where
variation itself vanishes, i.e outside bring no . The middle part does not change the action either,
because its transformation is a symmetry and thus preserves the Lagrangian and the action . The
only remaining parts are the
"buffering" pieces. In these regions
both the coordinate and velocity
change, but changes by , and
the change in the coordinate is
negligible by comparison since the
time span of the buffering is small
(taken to the limit of 0), so
. So the regions
contribute mostly through their
"slanting" .

That changes the Lagrangian by

, which
integrates to

Plot illustrating Noether's theorem for a coordinate-wise symmetry

These last terms, evaluated around the endpoints and , should cancel each other in order to make the total
change in the action be zero, as would be expected if the trajectory is a solution. That is

meaning the quantity is conserved, which is the conclusion of Noether's theorem. For instance if
pure translations of by a constant are the symmetry, then the conserved quantity becomes just
, the canonical momentum.

More general cases follow the same idea:

When more coordinates undergo a symmetry transformation , their effects add

up by linearity to a conserved quantity .
Time invariance implies conservation of energy: Suppose the Lagrangian is invariant to time
transformations, . We effect such a transformation with a very small time shift
in the time between and , by stretching the first buffering segment to
and compressing the second buffering segment to .
Again, the action outside the interval and between the buffering segments remains the
same. However, the buffering segments each contribute two terms to the change of the action:

The first term is due to the changing sizes of the "buffering" segments. The first segment
changes its size from to , and the second segment form to . Therefore, the
integral over the first segment changes by and the integral over the second segment
 changes by . The second term is due to the time dilation by a factor in the
first segment and by in the second segment, which changes all time derivatives by
the dilation factor. These time dilations change to (to first order in ) in the
first (-) and second (+) segment. Together they add to the conserved action S a term
for the first (+) and second (-) segment. Since the change of action

must be zero, , we conclude that the total energy must be equal at

times and , so total energy is conserved.

Finally, when instead of a trajectory entire fields are considered, the argument
replaces
the interval with a bounded region of the -domain,
the endpoints and with the boundary of the region,
and its contribution to is interpreted as a flux of a conserved current , that is built in a
way analogous to the prior definition of a conserved quantity.
Now, the zero contribution of the "buffering" to is interpreted as vanishing of the total
flux of the current through the . That is the sense in which it is conserved: how much is
"flowing" in, just as much is "flowing" out.

Historical context
A conservation law states that some quantity X in the mathematical description of a system's evolution
remains constant throughout its motion – it is an invariant. Mathematically, the rate of change of X (its
derivative with respect to time) is zero,

Such quantities are said to be conserved; they are often called constants of motion (although motion per se
need not be involved, just evolution in time). For example, if the energy of a system is conserved, its energy is
invariant at all times, which imposes a constraint on the system's motion and may help in solving for it. Aside
from insights that such constants of motion give into the nature of a system, they are a useful calculational
tool; for example, an approximate solution can be corrected by finding the nearest state that satisfies the
suitable conservation laws.

The earliest constants of motion discovered were momentum and kinetic energy, which were proposed in the
17th century by René Descartes and Gottfried Leibniz on the basis of collision experiments, and refined by
subsequent researchers. Isaac Newton was the first to enunciate the conservation of momentum in its modern
form, and showed that it was a consequence of Newton's laws of motion. According to general relativity, the
conservation laws of linear momentum, energy and angular momentum are only exactly true globally when
expressed in terms of the sum of the stress–energy tensor (non-gravitational stress–energy) and the Landau–
Lifshitz stress–energy–momentum pseudotensor (gravitational stress–energy). The local conservation of non-
gravitational linear momentum and energy in a free-falling reference frame is expressed by the vanishing of
the covariant divergence of the stress–energy tensor. Another important conserved quantity, discovered in
studies of the celestial mechanics of astronomical bodies, is the Laplace–Runge–Lenz vector.

In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, physicists developed more systematic methods for discovering
invariants. A major advance came in 1788 with the development of Lagrangian mechanics, which is related to
the principle of least action. In this approach, the state of the system can be described by any type of
generalized coordinates q; the laws of motion need not be expressed in a Cartesian coordinate system, as was
customary in Newtonian mechanics. The action is defined as the time integral I of a function known as the
Lagrangian L

where the dot over q signifies the rate of change of the coordinates q,

Hamilton's principle states that the physical path q(t)—the one actually taken by the system—is a path for
which infinitesimal variations in that path cause no change in I, at least up to first order. This principle results
in the Euler–Lagrange equations,

Thus, if one of the coordinates, say qk, does not appear in the Lagrangian, the right-hand side of the equation
is zero, and the left-hand side requires that

where the momentum

is conserved throughout the motion (on the physical path).

Thus, the absence of the ignorable coordinate qk from the Lagrangian implies that the Lagrangian is
unaffected by changes or transformations of qk; the Lagrangian is invariant, and is said to exhibit a symmetry
under such transformations. This is the seed idea generalized in Noether's theorem.

Several alternative methods for finding conserved quantities were developed in the 19th century, especially by
William Rowan Hamilton. For example, he developed a theory of canonical transformations which allowed
changing coordinates so that some coordinates disappeared from the Lagrangian, as above, resulting in
conserved canonical momenta. Another approach, and perhaps the most efficient for finding conserved
quantities, is the Hamilton–Jacobi equation.

Emmy Noether's work on the invariance theorem began in 1915 when she was helping Felix Klein and David
Hilbert with their work related to Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity[8]: 31 By March 1918 she had
most of the key ideas for the paper which would be published later in the year.[9]: 81

Mathematical expression

Simple form using perturbations

The essence of Noether's theorem is generalizing the notion of ignorable coordinates.

One can assume that the Lagrangian L defined above is invariant under small perturbations (warpings) of the
time variable t and the generalized coordinates q. One may write

where the perturbations δt and δq are both small, but variable. For generality, assume there are (say) N such
symmetry transformations of the action, i.e. transformations leaving the action unchanged; labelled by an
index r = 1, 2, 3, ..., N.

Then the resultant perturbation can be written as a linear sum of the individual types of perturbations,

where εr are infinitesimal parameter coefficients corresponding to each:

generator Tr of time evolution, and

generator Qr of the generalized coordinates.
For translations, Qr is a constant with units of length; for rotations, it is an expression linear in the
components of q, and the parameters make up an angle.

Using these definitions, Noether showed that the N quantities

are conserved (constants of motion).

Examples
I. Time invariance

For illustration, consider a Lagrangian that does not depend on time, i.e., that is invariant (symmetric) under
changes t → t + δt, without any change in the coordinates q. In this case, N = 1, T = 1 and Q = 0; the
corresponding conserved quantity is the total energy H[10]: 401

II. Translational invariance

Consider a Lagrangian which does not depend on an ("ignorable", as above) coordinate qk; so it is invariant
(symmetric) under changes qk → qk + δqk. In that case, N = 1, T = 0, and Qk = 1; the conserved quantity is the
corresponding linear momentum pk[10]: 403–404
In special and general relativity, these two conservation laws can be expressed either globally (as it is done
above), or locally as a continuity equation. The global versions can be united into a single global conservation
law: the conservation of the energy-momentum 4-vector. The local versions of energy and momentum
conservation (at any point in space-time) can also be united, into the conservation of a quantity defined
locally at the space-time point: the stress–energy tensor[11]: 592 (this will be derived in the next section).

III. Rotational invariance

The conservation of the angular momentum L = r × p is analogous to its linear momentum

counterpart.[10]: 404–405 It is assumed that the symmetry of the Lagrangian is rotational, i.e., that the
Lagrangian does not depend on the absolute orientation of the physical system in space. For concreteness,
assume that the Lagrangian does not change under small rotations of an angle δθ about an axis n; such a
rotation transforms the Cartesian coordinates by the equation

Since time is not being transformed, T = 0, and N = 1. Taking δθ as the ε parameter and the Cartesian
coordinates r as the generalized coordinates q, the corresponding Q variables are given by

Then Noether's theorem states that the following quantity is conserved,

In other words, the component of the angular momentum L along the n axis is conserved. And if n is
arbitrary, i.e., if the system is insensitive to any rotation, then every component of L is conserved; in short,
angular momentum is conserved.

Field theory version

Although useful in its own right, the version of Noether's theorem just given is a special case of the general
version derived in 1915. To give the flavor of the general theorem, a version of Noether's theorem for
continuous fields in four-dimensional space–time is now given. Since field theory problems are more
common in modern physics than mechanics problems, this field theory version is the most commonly used
(or most often implemented) version of Noether's theorem.

Let there be a set of differentiable fields defined over all space and time; for example, the temperature
would be representative of such a field, being a number defined at every place and time. The
principle of least action can be applied to such fields, but the action is now an integral over space and time

(the theorem can be further generalized to the case where the Lagrangian depends on up to the nth derivative,
and can also be formulated using jet bundles).

A continuous transformation of the fields can be written infinitesimally as

where is in general a function that may depend on both and . The condition for to generate a
physical symmetry is that the action is left invariant. This will certainly be true if the Lagrangian density
is left invariant, but it will also be true if the Lagrangian changes by a divergence,

since the integral of a divergence becomes a boundary term according to the divergence theorem. A system
described by a given action might have multiple independent symmetries of this type, indexed by
so the most general symmetry transformation would be written as

with the consequence

For such systems, Noether's theorem states that there are conserved current densities

(where the dot product is understood to contract the field indices, not the index or index).

In such cases, the conservation law is expressed in a four-dimensional way

which expresses the idea that the amount of a conserved quantity within a sphere cannot change unless some
of it flows out of the sphere. For example, electric charge is conserved; the amount of charge within a sphere
cannot change unless some of the charge leaves the sphere.

For illustration, consider a physical system of fields that behaves the same under translations in time and
space, as considered above; in other words, is constant in its third argument. In that case,
N = 4, one for each dimension of space and time. An infinitesimal translation in space,
(with denoting the Kronecker delta), affects the fields as : that is, relabelling the
coordinates is equivalent to leaving the coordinates in place while translating the field itself, which in turn is
equivalent to transforming the field by replacing its value at each point with the value at the point
"behind" it which would be mapped onto by the infinitesimal displacement under
consideration. Since this is infinitesimal, we may write this transformation as

The Lagrangian density transforms in the same way, , so

and thus Noether's theorem corresponds[11]: 592 to the conservation law for the stress–energy tensor Tμν,
where we have used in place of . To wit, by using the expression given earlier, and collecting the four
conserved currents (one for each ) into a tensor , Noether's theorem gives
with

(we relabelled as at an intermediate step to avoid conflict). (However, the obtained in this way may
differ from the symmetric tensor used as the source term in general relativity; see Canonical stress–energy
tensor.)

The conservation of electric charge, by contrast, can be derived by considering Ψ linear in the fields φ rather
than in the derivatives.[11]: 593–594 In quantum mechanics, the probability amplitude ψ(x) of finding a particle
at a point x is a complex field φ, because it ascribes a complex number to every point in space and time. The
probability amplitude itself is physically unmeasurable; only the probability p = |ψ|2 can be inferred from a set
of measurements. Therefore, the system is invariant under transformations of the ψ field and its complex
conjugate field ψ* that leave |ψ|2 unchanged, such as

a complex rotation. In the limit when the phase θ becomes infinitesimally small, δθ, it may be taken as the
parameter ε, while the Ψ are equal to iψ and −iψ*, respectively. A specific example is the Klein–Gordon
equation, the relativistically correct version of the Schrödinger equation for spinless particles, which has the
Lagrangian density

In this case, Noether's theorem states that the conserved (∂ ⋅ j = 0) current equals

which, when multiplied by the charge on that species of particle, equals the electric current density due to that
type of particle. This "gauge invariance" was first noted by Hermann Weyl, and is one of the prototype gauge
symmetries of physics.

Derivations

One independent variable

Consider the simplest case, a system with one independent variable, time. Suppose the dependent variables q
are such that the action integral

is invariant under brief infinitesimal variations in the dependent variables. In other words, they satisfy the
Euler–Lagrange equations
And suppose that the integral is invariant under a continuous symmetry. Mathematically such a symmetry is
represented as a flow, φ, which acts on the variables as follows

where ε is a real variable indicating the amount of flow, and T is a real constant (which could be zero)
indicating how much the flow shifts time.

The action integral flows to

which may be regarded as a function of ε. Calculating the derivative at ε = 0 and using Leibniz's rule, we get

Notice that the Euler–Lagrange equations imply

Substituting this into the previous equation, one gets

Again using the Euler–Lagrange equations we get

Substituting this into the previous equation, one gets

From which one can see that

is a constant of the motion, i.e., it is a conserved quantity. Since φ[q, 0] = q, we get and so the

conserved quantity simplifies to

To avoid excessive complication of the formulas, this derivation assumed that the flow does not change as
time passes. The same result can be obtained in the more general case.

Field-theoretic derivation
Noether's theorem may also be derived for tensor fields where the index A ranges over the various
components of the various tensor fields. These field quantities are functions defined over a four-dimensional
space whose points are labeled by coordinates xμ where the index μ ranges over time (μ = 0) and three spatial
dimensions (μ = 1, 2, 3). These four coordinates are the independent variables; and the values of the fields at
each event are the dependent variables. Under an infinitesimal transformation, the variation in the coordinates
is written

whereas the transformation of the field variables is expressed as

By this definition, the field variations result from two factors: intrinsic changes in the field themselves
and changes in coordinates, since the transformed field αA depends on the transformed coordinates ξμ. To
isolate the intrinsic changes, the field variation at a single point xμ may be defined

If the coordinates are changed, the boundary of the region of space–time over which the Lagrangian is being
integrated also changes; the original boundary and its transformed version are denoted as Ω and Ω’,
respectively.

Noether's theorem begins with the assumption that a specific transformation of the coordinates and field
variables does not change the action, which is defined as the integral of the Lagrangian density over the given
region of spacetime. Expressed mathematically, this assumption may be written as
where the comma subscript indicates a partial derivative with respect to the coordinate(s) that follows the
comma, e.g.

Since ξ is a dummy variable of integration, and since the change in the boundary Ω is infinitesimal by
assumption, the two integrals may be combined using the four-dimensional version of the divergence theorem
into the following form

The difference in Lagrangians can be written to first-order in the infinitesimal variations as

However, because the variations are defined at the same point as described above, the variation and the
derivative can be done in reverse order; they commute

Using the Euler–Lagrange field equations

the difference in Lagrangians can be written neatly as

Thus, the change in the action can be written as

Since this holds for any region Ω, the integrand must be zero

For any combination of the various symmetry transformations, the perturbation can be written
where is the Lie derivative of in the Xμ direction. When is a scalar or ,

These equations imply that the field variation taken at one point equals

Differentiating the above divergence with respect to ε at ε = 0 and changing the sign yields the conservation
law

where the conserved current equals

Manifold/fiber bundle derivation

Suppose we have an n-dimensional oriented Riemannian manifold, M and a target manifold T. Let be the
configuration space of smooth functions from M to T. (More generally, we can have smooth sections of a
fiber bundle T over M.)

Examples of this M in physics include:

In classical mechanics, in the Hamiltonian formulation, M is the one-dimensional manifold ,

representing time and the target space is the cotangent bundle of space of generalized
positions.
In field theory, M is the spacetime manifold and the target space is the set of values the fields
can take at any given point. For example, if there are m real-valued scalar fields, ,
then the target manifold is . If the field is a real vector field, then the target manifold is
isomorphic to .
Now suppose there is a functional

called the action. (It takes values into , rather than ; this is for physical reasons, and is unimportant for this
proof.)

To get to the usual version of Noether's theorem, we need additional restrictions on the action. We assume
is the integral over M of a function

called the Lagrangian density, depending on , its derivative and the position. In other words, for in
Suppose we are given boundary conditions, i.e., a specification of the value of at the boundary if M is
compact, or some limit on as x approaches ∞. Then the subspace of consisting of functions such that all
functional derivatives of at are zero, that is:

and that satisfies the given boundary conditions, is the subspace of on shell solutions. (See principle of
stationary action)

Now, suppose we have an infinitesimal transformation on , generated by a functional derivation, Q such that

for all compact submanifolds N or in other words,

for all x, where we set

If this holds on shell and off shell, we say Q generates an off-shell symmetry. If this only holds on shell, we
say Q generates an on-shell symmetry. Then, we say Q is a generator of a one parameter symmetry Lie group.

Now, for any N, because of the Euler–Lagrange theorem, on shell (and only on-shell), we have

Since this is true for any N, we have

But this is the continuity equation for the current defined by:[12]

which is called the Noether current associated with the symmetry. The continuity equation tells us that if we
integrate this current over a space-like slice, we get a conserved quantity called the Noether charge (provided,
of course, if M is noncompact, the currents fall off sufficiently fast at infinity).

Comments
Noether's theorem is an on shell theorem: it relies on use of the equations of motion—the classical path. It
reflects the relation between the boundary conditions and the variational principle. Assuming no boundary
terms in the action, Noether's theorem implies that

The quantum analogs of Noether's theorem involving expectation values (e.g., ) probing
off shell quantities as well are the Ward–Takahashi identities.

Generalization to Lie algebras

Suppose we have two symmetry derivations Q1 and Q2. Then, [Q1, Q2] is also a symmetry derivation. Let us
see this explicitly. Let us say

and

Then,

where f12 = Q1[f2μ] − Q2[f1μ]. So,

This shows we can extend Noether's theorem to larger Lie algebras in a natural way.

Generalization of the proof

This applies to any local symmetry derivation Q satisfying QS ≈ 0, and also to more general local functional
differentiable actions, including ones where the Lagrangian depends on higher derivatives of the fields. Let ε
be any arbitrary smooth function of the spacetime (or time) manifold such that the closure of its support is
disjoint from the boundary. ε is a test function. Then, because of the variational principle (which does not
apply to the boundary, by the way), the derivation distribution q generated by q[ε][Φ(x)] = ε(x)Q[Φ(x)]
satisfies q[ε][S] ≈ 0 for every ε, or more compactly, q(x)[S] ≈ 0 for all x not on the boundary (but remember
that q(x) is a shorthand for a derivation distribution, not a derivation parametrized by x in general). This is the
generalization of Noether's theorem.

To see how the generalization is related to the version given above, assume that the action is the spacetime
integral of a Lagrangian that only depends on and its first derivatives. Also, assume

Then,
for all .

More generally, if the Lagrangian depends on higher derivatives, then

Examples

Example 1: Conservation of energy

Looking at the specific case of a Newtonian particle of mass m, coordinate x, moving under the influence of a
potential V, coordinatized by time t. The action, S, is:

The first term in the brackets is the kinetic energy of the particle, while the second is its potential energy.
Consider the generator of time translations Q = d/dt. In other words, . The coordinate x has an
explicit dependence on time, whilst V does not; consequently:

so we can set

Then,
The right hand side is the energy, and Noether's theorem states that (i.e. the principle of
conservation of energy is a consequence of invariance under time translations).

More generally, if the Lagrangian does not depend explicitly on time, the quantity

(called the Hamiltonian) is conserved.

Example 2: Conservation of center of momentum

Still considering 1-dimensional time, let

for Newtonian particles where the potential only depends pairwise upon the relative displacement.

For , consider the generator of Galilean transformations (i.e. a change in the frame of reference). In other
words,

And

This has the form of so we can set

Then,
where is the total momentum, M is the total mass and is the center of mass. Noether's theorem states:

Example 3: Conformal transformation

Both examples 1 and 2 are over a 1-dimensional manifold (time). An example involving spacetime is a
conformal transformation of a massless real scalar field with a quartic potential in (3 + 1)-Minkowski
spacetime.

For Q, consider the generator of a spacetime rescaling. In other words,

The second term on the right hand side is due to the "conformal weight" of . And

This has the form of

(where we have performed a change of dummy indices) so set

Then

Noether's theorem states that (as one may explicitly check by substituting the Euler–Lagrange
equations into the left hand side).
If one tries to find the Ward–Takahashi analog of this equation, one runs into a problem because of anomalies.

Applications
Application of Noether's theorem allows physicists to gain powerful insights into any general theory in
physics, by just analyzing the various transformations that would make the form of the laws involved
invariant. For example:

Invariance of an isolated system with respect to spatial translation (in other words, that the laws
of physics are the same at all locations in space) gives the law of conservation of linear
momentum (which states that the total linear momentum of an isolated system is constant)
Invariance of an isolated system with respect to time translation (i.e. that the laws of physics are
the same at all points in time) gives the law of conservation of energy (which states that the total
energy of an isolated system is constant)
Invariance of an isolated system with respect to rotation (i.e., that the laws of physics are the
same with respect to all angular orientations in space) gives the law of conservation of angular
momentum (which states that the total angular momentum of an isolated system is constant)
Invariance of an isolated system with respect to Lorentz boosts (i.e., that the laws of physics are
the same with respect to all inertial reference frames) gives the center-of-mass theorem (which
states that the center-of-mass of an isolated system moves at a constant velocity).
In quantum field theory, the analog to Noether's theorem, the Ward–Takahashi identity, yields further
conservation laws, such as the conservation of electric charge from the invariance with respect to a change in
the phase factor of the complex field of the charged particle and the associated gauge of the electric potential
and vector potential.

The Noether charge is also used in calculating the entropy of stationary black holes.[13]

See also

Mathematics portal

Physics portal

Conservation law
Charge (physics)
Gauge symmetry
Gauge symmetry (mathematics)
Invariant (physics)
Goldstone boson
Symmetry (physics)

References
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6. Thompson, W.J. (1994). Angular Momentum: an illustrated guide to rotational symmetries for
physical systems (https://books.google.com/books?id=O25fXV4z0B0C&pg=PA5). Vol. 1. Wiley.
p. 5. ISBN 0-471-55264-X.
7. Nina Byers (1998) "E. Noether's Discovery of the Deep Connection Between Symmetries and
Conservation Laws" (http://cwp.library.ucla.edu/articles/noether.asg/noether.html). In
Proceedings of a Symposium on the Heritage of Emmy Noether, held on 2–4 December 1996,
at the Bar-Ilan University, Israel, Appendix B.
8. Dick, Auguste (1981). Emmy Noether 1882–1935 (http://link.springer.com/10.1007/978-1-4684-
0535-4). Boston, MA: Birkhäuser Boston. doi:10.1007/978-1-4684-0535-4 (https://doi.org/10.10
07%2F978-1-4684-0535-4). ISBN 978-1-4684-0537-8.
9. Rowe, David E. (2021). Emmy Noether – Mathematician Extraordinaire (https://link.springer.co
m/10.1007/978-3-030-63810-8). Cham: Springer International Publishing. doi:10.1007/978-3-
030-63810-8 (https://doi.org/10.1007%2F978-3-030-63810-8). ISBN 978-3-030-63809-2.
10. Lanczos, C. (1970). The Variational Principles of Mechanics (4th ed.). New York: Dover
Publications. ISBN 0-486-65067-7.
11. Goldstein, Herbert (1980). Classical Mechanics (2nd ed.). Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
ISBN 0-201-02918-9.
12. Michael E. Peskin; Daniel V. Schroeder (1995). An Introduction to Quantum Field Theory (http
s://books.google.com/books?id=i35LALN0GosC&q=weinberg+%22symmetry+%22&pg=PA68
9). Basic Books. p. 18. ISBN 0-201-50397-2.
13. Iyer, Vivek; Wald, Robert M. (15 October 1995). "A comparison of Noether charge and
Euclidean methods for Computing the Entropy of Stationary Black Holes". Physical Review D.
52 (8): 4430–4439. arXiv:gr-qc/9503052 (https://arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/9503052).
Bibcode:1995PhRvD..52.4430I (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1995PhRvD..52.4430I).
doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.52.4430 (https://doi.org/10.1103%2FPhysRevD.52.4430).
PMID 10019667 (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10019667). S2CID 2588285 (https://api.sema
nticscholar.org/CorpusID:2588285).

Further reading
Badin, Gualtiero; Crisciani, Fulvio (2018). Variational Formulation of Fluid and Geophysical Fluid
Dynamics – Mechanics, Symmetries and Conservation Laws. Springer. p. 218.
Bibcode:2018vffg.book.....B (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2018vffg.book.....B).
doi:10.1007/978-3-319-59695-2 (https://doi.org/10.1007%2F978-3-319-59695-2). ISBN 978-3-
319-59694-5. S2CID 125902566 (https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:125902566).
Johnson, Tristan (2016). "Noether's Theorem: Symmetry and Conservation" (https://digitalwork
s.union.edu/theses/163/). Honors Theses. Union College. Retrieved 28 August 2020.
Kosmann-Schwarzbach, Yvette (2010). The Noether theorems: Invariance and conservation
laws in the twentieth century. Sources and Studies in the History of Mathematics and Physical
 Sciences. Springer-Verlag. ISBN 978-0-387-87867-6. Online copy (http://www.math.cornell.edu/
~templier/junior/The-Noether-theorems.pdf).
Moser, Seth (21 April 2020). "Understanding Noether's Theorem by Visualizing the Lagrangian"
(https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/phys_capstoneproject/86/). Physics Capstone Projects: 1–12.
Retrieved 28 August 2020.
Olver, Peter (1993). Applications of Lie groups to differential equations. Graduate Texts in
Mathematics. Vol. 107 (2nd ed.). Springer-Verlag. ISBN 0-387-95000-1.
Sardanashvily, G. (2016). Noether's Theorems. Applications in Mechanics and Field Theory.
Springer-Verlag. ISBN 978-94-6239-171-0.

External links
Emmy Noether (1918). "Invariante Variationsprobleme" (https://de.wikisource.org/wiki/Invariante
_Variationsprobleme) (in German).
Emmy Noether (1971). "Invariant Variation Problems". Transport Theory and Statistical Physics.
1 (3). Translated by Mort Tavel: 186–207. arXiv:physics/0503066 (https://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0
503066). Bibcode:1971TTSP....1..186N (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1971TTSP....1..186
N). doi:10.1080/00411457108231446 (https://doi.org/10.1080%2F00411457108231446).
S2CID 119019843 (https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:119019843). (Original in Gott.
Nachr. 1918:235–257)
Byers, Nina (1998). "E. Noether's Discovery of the Deep Connection Between Symmetries and
Conservation Laws". arXiv:physics/9807044 (https://arxiv.org/abs/physics/9807044).
Baez, John (2002). "Noether's Theorem in a Nutshell" (http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/noether.h
tml). math.ucr.edu. Retrieved 28 August 2020.
Vladimir Cuesta; Merced Montesinos; José David Vergara (2007). "Gauge invariance of the
action principle for gauge systems with noncanonical symplectic structures". Physical Review D.
76 (2): 025025. Bibcode:2007PhRvD..76b5025C (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2007PhRv
D..76b5025C). doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.76.025025 (https://doi.org/10.1103%2FPhysRevD.76.02
5025).
Hanca, J.; Tulejab, S.; Hancova, M. (2004). "Symmetries and conservation laws: Consequences
of Noether's theorem" (http://www.eftaylor.com/pub/symmetry.html). American Journal of
Physics. 72 (4): 428–35. Bibcode:2004AmJPh..72..428H (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/200
4AmJPh..72..428H). doi:10.1119/1.1591764 (https://doi.org/10.1119%2F1.1591764).
Leone, Raphaël (11 April 2018). "On the wonderfulness of Noether's theorems, 100 years later,
and Routh reduction". arXiv:1804.01714 (https://arxiv.org/abs/1804.01714) [physics.hist-ph (http
s://arxiv.org/archive/physics.hist-ph)].
Noether's Theorem (http://www.mathpages.com/home/kmath564/kmath564.htm) at MathPages.
Merced Montesinos; Ernesto Flores (2006). "Symmetric energy–momentum tensor in Maxwell,
Yang–Mills, and Proca theories obtained using only Noether's theorem" (https://web.archive.org/
web/20160304023543/http://rmf.smf.mx/pdf/rmf/52/1/52_1_29.pdf) (PDF). Revista Mexicana de
Física. 52 (1): 29–36. arXiv:hep-th/0602190 (https://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/0602190).
Bibcode:2006RMxF...52...29M (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2006RMxF...52...29M).
Archived from the original (http://rmf.smf.mx/pdf/rmf/52/1/52_1_29.pdf) (PDF) on 2016-03-04.
Retrieved 2014-11-12.
Neuenschwander, Dwight E. (2010). Emmy Noether's Wonderful Theorem. Johns Hopkins
University Press. ISBN 978-0-8018-9694-1.
Quigg, Chris (9 July 2019). "Colloquium: A Century of Noether's Theorem". arXiv:1902.01989 (ht
tps://arxiv.org/abs/1902.01989) [physics.hist-ph (https://arxiv.org/archive/physics.hist-ph)].
Sardanashvily (2009). "Gauge conservation laws in a general setting. Superpotential".
International Journal of Geometric Methods in Modern Physics. 6 (6): 1047–1056.
arXiv:0906.1732 (https://arxiv.org/abs/0906.1732). Bibcode:2009arXiv0906.1732S (https://ui.ads
abs.harvard.edu/abs/2009arXiv0906.1732S). doi:10.1142/S0219887809003862 (https://doi.org/
10.1142%2FS0219887809003862).
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