Gauge transformations are canonical transformations, redux

TL;DR

This paper revisits and corrects a previous work showing that gauge transformations in mechanics are canonical transformations, emphasizing that this insight predates the referenced paper and clarifies earlier misunderstandings.

Contribution

It corrects an error in a prior publication and highlights that the equivalence of gauge and canonical transformations was known earlier.

Findings

Gauge transformations are equivalent to canonical transformations.

The main result was known prior to the referenced paper.

Correction of a previous erroneous conclusion.

Abstract

In this short note we return to the old paper by Tai L. Chow (Eur. J. Phys. 18 (1997), 467-468) and correct its erroneous final part. We also note that the main result of that paper, that gauge transformations of mechanics are canonical transformations, was known much earlier.