Spectral Theory of Time Dispersive and Dissipative Systems
Abstract
We study linear time dispersive and dissipative systems. Very often such systems are not conservative and the standard spectral theory can not be applied. We develop a mathematically consistent framework allowing (i) to constructively determine if a given time dispersive system can be extended to a conservative one; (ii) to construct that very conservative system -- which we show is essentially unique. We illustrate the method by applying it to the spectral analysis of time dispersive dielectrics and the damped oscillator with retarded friction. In particular, we obtain a conservative extension of the Maxwell equations which is equivalent to the original Maxwell equations for a dispersive and lossy dielectric medium.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.math-ph/0404070,
title = {Spectral Theory of Time Dispersive and Dissipative Systems},
author = {Alex Figotin and Jeffrey H. Schenker},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:math-ph/0404070},
year = {2007}
}
Comments
LaTeX, 57 Pages, incorporated revisions corresponding with published version