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Extending Bauer's corollary to fractional derivatives

David W. Dreisigmeyer, Peter M. Young

physics.class-pharXiv:physics/0312085

Abstract

We comment on the method of Dreisigmeyer and Young [D. W. Dreisigmeyer and P. M. Young, J. Phys. A 36, 8297, (2003)] 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.

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