Fractional calculus is a collection of relatively little-known mathematical results concerning generalizations of differentiation and integration to noninteger orders. While these results have been accumulated over centuries in various branches of mathematics, they have until recently found little appreciation or application in physics and other mathematically oriented sciences. This situation is beginning to change, and there are now a growing number of research areas in physics which employ fractional calculus.
This volume provides an introduction to fractional calculus for physicists, and collects easily accessible review articles surveying those areas of physics in which applications of fractional calculus have recently become prominent.
Sample Chapter(s)
Chapter 1: An Introduction to Fractional Calculus (2,907 KB)
Contents:
- An Introduction to Fractional Calculus (P L Butzer & U Westphal)
- Fractional Time Evolution (R Hilfer)
- Fractional Powers of Infinitesimal Generators of Semigroups (U Westphal)
- Fractional Differences, Derivatives and Fractal Time Series (B J West & P Grigolini)
- Fractional Kinetics of Hamiltonian Chaotic Systems (G M Zaslavsky)
- Polymer Science Applications of Path-Integration, Integral Equations, and Fractional Calculus (J F Douglas)
- Applications to Problems in Polymer Physics and Rheology (H Schiessel et al.)
- Applications of Fractional Calculus Techniques to Problems in Biophysics (T F Nonnenmacher & R Metzler)
- Fractional Calculus and Regular Variation in Thermodynamics (R Hilfer)
Readership: Statistical, theoretical and mathematical physicists.
“This monograph provides a systematic treatment of the theory and applications of fractional calculus for physicists. It contains nine review articles surveying those areas in which fractional calculus has become important. All the chapters are self-contained.”
Mathematics Abstracts