An analytic semigroup generated by a fractional differential operator (Q2287253)

Investigating the non-local modelling and analysis has been an interesting topic of research for many researchers during the current research revolution of fractional calculus and modelling due to the fact that the physical behavior of some certain systems with non-local fractional formulations can be interpreted better than classical local systems. Various definitions, generalized formulations, and modified numerical methods have been developed for modelling many existing phenomena from natural science and engineering (see [\textit{Q. Du}, Nonlocal modeling, analysis, and computation. Philadelphia, PA: Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) (2019; Zbl 1423.00007)]). However, studying and analyzing the relation between the theories of semigroup and fractional calculus have been rarely discussed in some recent research studies (see [\textit{N. Tokinaga} and \textit{P. Rybka}, SIAM J. Math. Anal. 52, No. 1, 653--681 (2020; Zbl 1430.35262); \textit{K. Ryszewska}, ``A space-fractional Stefan problem'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:1910.00379}], and [\textit{N. Tokinaga} et al., ``Some comments on using fractional derivative operators in modeling non-local diffusion processes'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:1902.07934}]). In this research paper, the author has successfully investigated the unique existence of regular solutions of the space-fractional diffusion problem via semigroup method by studying the initial-boundary value problem (IBVP) which is written as follows: Given a positive Lipschitz function, \(p\), and a fractional Caputo derivative operator, denoted by \(D^{\alpha}\) for \(\alpha \in (0,1)\), with respect to a spatial variable, then \(u_{t}-\frac{\partial}{\partial x}(p(x) D^{\alpha}u)=f\) in the domain \((0,1) \times (0,T)\) subject to \(u_{x}(0,t)=0\), \(u(1,t)=0\) \(\forall t \in (0,T)\), and \(u(x,0)=u_{0}(x)\) in the domain \((0,1)\). The study of IBVP and semigroup theory is very important not only due to their applications, but also due to the motivation to study the non-self-adjoint fractional differential operator, \(\frac{\partial}{\partial x} D^{\alpha}\), from IBVP in the sense of Sobolev spaces in order to formulate an analytic semigroup generated by \(\frac{\partial}{\partial x} D^{\alpha}\) on the following domain: \(\{{u \in H^{1+ \alpha}(0,1): u_{x} \in {}_{0}H^{\alpha}(0,1), u(1)=0}\}\) where \(H^{\alpha}(0,1)\) and \({}_{0}H^{\alpha}(0,1)\) are fractional Sobelev space and subspace, respectively. Therefore, the author has provided a good analysis of this research study by starting with the case \(p \equiv 1\) and extending it to any restricted positive Lipschitz continuous function, \(p\), to study the fractional differential operator, \(\frac{\partial}{\partial x} (p(x) D^{\alpha})\). Last but not least, the author has successfully included in the applications section of this research paper a basic example of parabolic-type problem to show the validity of the previously proved results in this research paper to prove the existence of the solution for the example's problem via the method of semigroup theory.