David W Dreisigmeyer and Peter M Young 2004 J. Phys. A: Math. Gen. 37 L117 doi:10.1088/0305-4470/37/11/L01
David W Dreisigmeyer1 and Peter M Young2
Show affiliationsWe comment on the method of Dreisigmeyer and Young J. Phys. A: Math. Gen.368297 to model nonconservative systems with fractional derivatives. It was previously hoped that using fractional derivatives in an action would allow us to derive a single retarded equation of motion using a variational principle. It is proven that, under certain reasonable assumptions, the method of Dreisigmeyer and Young fails.
Issue 11 (19 March 2004)
Received 12 December 2003
Published 2 March 2004
David W Dreisigmeyer and Peter M Young 2004 J. Phys. A: Math. Gen. 37 L117
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