Dissipative systems, conservation laws and symmetries

a recent note “On Conservation Laws for Dissipative Systems”, a new method of constructing conservation laws applicable to dissipative systems was proposed. It is the purpose of this present paper to explore how this new method, called the “Neutral Action Method”, is related to the concept of symmetry, and how it embodies the classical methods for obtaining conservation laws of Noether and Bessel-Hagen which are applicable only to Lagrangian systems. Copyright 0 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd.