English

Equations of Motion for Variational Electrodynamics

Mathematical Physics 2016-06-29 v5 math.MP

Abstract

We extend the variational problem of Wheeler-Feynman electrodynamics by putting the electromagnetic functional in a local space of absolutely continuous trajectories possessing a derivative (velocities) of bounded variation. Generalizing the calculus of variations for extrema with a finite number of velocity discontinuities (breaking points), we prove that the critical-point-conditions for the two-body problem in the extended local space are Euler-Lagrange equations holding Lebesgue-almost-everywhere plus the generalized Weierstrass-Erdmann conditions that (i) the partial momenta must be absolutely continuous functions and (ii) the Legendre transforms of the partial Lagrangians (i.e, the partial energies) must be absolutely continuous functions.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1402.0802,
  title  = {Equations of Motion for Variational Electrodynamics},
  author = {Jayme De Luca},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1402.0802},
  year   = {2016}
}

Comments

21 pages, 1 figure, published in Journal of Differential Equations, 260 (2016) 5816-5833

R2 v1 2026-06-22T03:01:12.747Z