Characterization of Image Spaces of Riemann-Liouville Fractional Integral Operators on Sobolev Spaces $W^{m,p}(\Omega)$

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the image spaces of Riemann-Liouville fractional integral operators on Sobolev spaces, providing characterizations, boundary behavior, and implications for numerical methods in fractional calculus.

Contribution

It offers new characterizations of fractional integral image spaces on Sobolev spaces and explores their boundary behavior and reciprocal relationships, aiding theoretical understanding and numerical applications.

Findings

Characterizations of fractional integral image spaces on Sobolev spaces.

Analysis of boundary behavior of functions in these spaces.

Reciprocal relationship between tempered and Riemann-Liouville fractional operators.

Abstract

Fractional operators are widely used in mathematical models describing abnormal and nonlocal phenomena. Although there are extensive numerical methods for solving the corresponding model problems, theoretical analysis such as the regularity result, or the relationship between the left-side and right-side fractional operators are seldom mentioned. In stead of considering the fractional derivative spaces, this paper starts from discussing the image spaces of Riemann-Liouville fractional integrals of $L_p(\Omega)$ functions, since the fractional derivative operators that often used are all pseudo-differential. Then high regularity situation---the image spaces of Riemann-Liouville fractional integral operators on $W^{m,p}(\Omega)$ space are considered. Equivalent characterizations of the defined spaces, as well as of the intersection of the left-side and right-side spaces are given. The behavior of the functions in the defined spaces at both the nearby boundary point/ponits and the points in the domain are demonstrated in a clear way. Besides, tempered fractional operators show to be reciprocal to the corresponding Riemann-Liouville fractional operators, which is expected to make some efforts on theoretical support for relevant numerical methods. Last, we also provide some instructions on how to take advantage of the introduced spaces when numerically solving fractional equations.