# Jacobian rules with canonical transformations

If we consider a canonical transformation from $$(q,p)$$ to $$(Q,P)$$, it is stated in several sources that by Jacobian rules, $$\frac{\partial(Q,P)}{\partial(q,p)} = \frac{\partial(Q,P)/\partial(q,P)}{\partial(q,p)/\partial(q,P)}. \tag{1}$$

By taking books such as Riley's Mathematical Methods for physics and engineering, I could confirm that this is indeed true (section 6.4.4). However, I have tried this myself and it seems that I am missing something. For instance the left hand side of the above equation expands in:

$$\frac{\partial(Q,P)}{\partial(q,p)}=\frac{\partial Q}{\partial q}\frac{\partial P}{\partial p} - \frac{\partial Q}{\partial p}\frac{\partial P}{\partial q}$$

Now, the numerator of the right hand side is

$$\frac{\partial(Q,P)}{\partial(q,P)}=\frac{\partial Q}{\partial q}\frac{\partial P}{\partial P} - \frac{\partial Q}{\partial P}\frac{\partial P}{\partial q}=\frac{\partial Q}{\partial q}$$

Then, the denominator is

$$\frac{\partial(q,p)}{\partial(q,P)}=\frac{\partial q}{\partial q}\frac{\partial p}{\partial P} - \frac{\partial q}{\partial P}\frac{\partial p}{\partial q}=\frac{\partial p}{\partial P}$$

yielding the right hand side of the first equation above:

$$\frac{\partial(Q,P)/\partial(q,P)}{\partial(q,p)/\partial(q,P)} = \frac{\partial Q}{\partial q}\frac{\partial P}{\partial p}$$

which corresponds to the first term of the second equation above. This means that the second term of the second equation above has to be zero. However, I fail to see why this is true. Assuming that $$Q=Q(p,q)$$ and $$P=P(p,q)$$, that term should have a value. What am I missing?

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• Are you writing the determinant of the Jacobian? THe notation was not clear to me – innisfree yesterday
• @innisfree Yes, I meant the determinant of the Jacobian with the above notation. I am sorry it was not clear, I just took the notation found in more than one book (Riley, Hamill, etc.) and assumed it was common... – Rapha yesterday

OP's eq. (1) is true for any invertible coordinate transformation -- they don't need to be canonical coordinates. The trick is to keep track of what is kept constant during the partial differentations. In 2D eq. (1) reads:

\begin{align} {\rm LHS} ~=~&\left(\frac{\partial Q}{\partial q}\right)_p \left(\frac{\partial P}{\partial p}\right)_q - \left(\frac{\partial P}{\partial q}\right)_q \left(\frac{\partial Q}{\partial p}\right)_p\cr ~=~& \left[\left(\frac{\partial q}{\partial q}\right)_p \left(\frac{\partial Q}{\partial q}\right)_P + \left(\frac{\partial P}{\partial q}\right)_p \left(\frac{\partial Q}{\partial P}\right)_q\right] \left(\frac{\partial P}{\partial p}\right)_q \cr &- \left(\frac{\partial P}{\partial q}\right)_p \left[\left(\frac{\partial q}{\partial p}\right)_q \left(\frac{\partial Q}{\partial q}\right)_P +\left(\frac{\partial P}{\partial p}\right)_q \left(\frac{\partial Q}{\partial P}\right)_q \right]\cr ~=~& \left[\left(\frac{\partial Q}{\partial q}\right)_P + \left(\frac{\partial P}{\partial q}\right)_p \left(\frac{\partial Q}{\partial P}\right)_q\right] \left(\frac{\partial P}{\partial p}\right)_q - \left(\frac{\partial P}{\partial q}\right)_p \left(\frac{\partial P}{\partial p}\right)_q \left(\frac{\partial Q}{\partial P}\right)_q \cr ~=~& \left(\frac{\partial Q}{\partial q}\right)_P\left(\frac{\partial P}{\partial p}\right)_q ~=~\left(\frac{\partial Q}{\partial q}\right)_P / \left(\frac{\partial p}{\partial P}\right)_q ~=~{\rm RHS},\end{align} where we used the multi-variable chain rule twice.

• I feel that your derivation is obvious, but how do you get from the first line to the second and then the third line? I do not see how the new partial derivatives were introduced – Rapha yesterday
• I updated the answer. – Qmechanic yesterday

The expression $$\frac{\partial(Q,P)/\partial(q,P)}{\partial(q,p)/\partial(q,P)}$$ is ratio of Jacobians.

Evaluate each expression independently by eliminating the repeated variables - then divide them.

In your case, $$\frac{\partial(Q,P)/\partial(q,P)}{\partial(q,p)/\partial(q,P)}=\frac{\partial Q/\partial q}{\partial p/\partial P}=J$$.

The transformation is canonical since $$\partial Q/\partial q=1$$ and $$\partial p/\partial P=1$$ which implies $$J=1$$ where $$J$$ is the Jacobian.