Nonconservative Lagrangian Mechanics: Purely Causal Equations of Motion

Abstract

This work builds on the Volterra series formalism presented in Dreisigmeyer and Young (J Phys A 36: 8297, 2003) to model nonconservative systems. Here we treat Lagrangians and actions as ‘time dependent’ Volterra series. We present a new family of kernels to be used in these Volterra series that allow us to derive a single retarded equation of motion using a variational principle.