Abstract
We investigate a nonlinear, nonlocal, and fully coupled boundary value problem containing mixed -Hilfer fractional derivative and -Riemann–Liouville fractional integral operators. Existence and uniqueness results for the given problem are proved with the aid of standard fixed point theorems. Examples illustrating the main results are presented. The paper concludes with some interesting findings.
Keywords:
systems of (k,ψ) Hilfer fractional differential equations; fractional integrals; fractional derivatives; coupled nonlocal boundary conditions; existence of solutions; fixed point theorems MSC:
26A33; 34A08; 34B15
1. Introduction
We consider a nonlinear system of -Hilfer fractional differential equations:
supplemented with coupled mixed boundary conditions containing -derivative and integral operators
where represents the -Hilfer fractional derivative operator of order and parameter with and such that , and are -Riemann–Liouville fractional integrals of order , respectively, and
The objective of the present work is to develop the existence theory for the Problem (1) and (2) via the tools of the fixed point theory. A uniqueness result for the Problem (1) and (2) is proved by means of a fixed point theorem due to Banach, while the Leray–Schauder alternative and Krasnosel’skiĭ’s fixed-point theorem are applied to derive the two existence results for the problem at hand. The results established in this paper will contribute significantly to the literature on coupled -Hilfer fractional differential systems, which is indeed scarce and needs to be enriched and extended further in several directions.
Boundary value problems involving different kinds of fractional derivative operators such as Caputo–Liouville, Riemann–Liouville, -Riemann–Liouville [1], Hilfer [2], k-Riemann–Liouville, -Riemann–Liouville [3], -Hilfer [4], etc., have been addressed by several authors. Some recent results on nonlocal multipoint single-valued and multi-valued boundary value problems containing Hilfer and Caputo–Hadamard type fractional derivative operators can be found in the papers [5,6,7]. For preliminary concepts of fractional calculus, for example, see the books [1,8]. Here we mention that the Hilfer fractional derivative unifies the definitions of both Riemann–Liouville and Caputo fractional derivatives. For some applications of Hilfer fractional derivative operator, see [2,9,10,11].
Let us now review some recent works on fractional differential equations and systems equipped with different boundary conditions. In [12], the authors proved the existence and uniqueness of solutions for a boundary value problem involving -Hilfer type fractional derivative and integral operators of the form:
where and represent the -Hilfer type fractional derivative operators of orders , and with parameters , respectively, is the -Riemann–Liouville fractional integral of order and For some recent results on -Hilfer fractional differential equations, see [13].
In [14], the authors applied the standard tools of the fixed point theory to establish the existence and uniqueness results for the coupled -Hilfer type fractional differential system (1) equipped with nonlocal multipoint boundary conditions:
where and
As far as the authors know, the paper [14] is the only work in the literature dealing with coupled systems of -Hilfer fractional derivative operator of the order in Our goal in the present paper is to enrich this new research area on coupled -Hilfer fractional systems by introducing and investigating the new boundary value Problem (1) and (2).
Concerning the importance of coupled fractional differential systems, it is well-known that such systems appear in the mathematical models of many physical phenomena related to bio-engineering [15], fractional dynamics [16], financial economics [17], etc. In [18,19], some interesting results for -Hilfer fractional differential coupled systems were obtained.
The structure of the remaining paper is designed as follows. Section 2 contains basic definitions and an auxiliary lemma. Existence and uniqueness results for the given problem are presented in Section 3, while illustrative examples for these results are discussed in Section 4. In the last section, we indicate some new results arising as special cases of the present work.
2. A Preliminary Result
Definition 1
([3]). The fractional integral of -Riemann–Liouville type of order () of a function is defined by
where is an increasing function with for all .
Definition 2
([13]). For the fractional derivative of -Hilfer type for the function of order and type is given by
Lemma 1.
Proof.
Assume that the pair is the solution of the System (5). As argued in [12], operating fractional integrals and on the first and second -Hilfer fractional differential equations in system (5), respectively, we obtain
where and are constants. Making use of the boundary conditions and in Equations (10), we find that and since , .
On the other hand, due to the conditions and , we obtain from Equations (10) after inserting and that
and
Solving the System (13) for and , we obtain
3. Existence and Uniqueness Results
Suppose that is the Banach space consisting of all continuous real-valued functions on to , equipped with the norm . Then is also a Banach space endowed with the norm .
Using Lemma 1, an operator can be defined as
where
and
Here one can notice that the fixed point problem is equivalent to the nonlinear Problem (1) and (2).
For the sake of computational convenience, we introduce the notation:
and
3.1. Existence of a Unique Solution
In the following result, the Banach’s fixed point theorem is applied to establish the uniqueness of solutions for the System (1) and (2).
Theorem 1.
Proof.
Let us consider a closed ball where
and . Then we show that . For , we obtain
Analogously, we have
Accordingly, we obtain
which implies that since is an arbitrary element. On the other hand, for and , we obtain
Thus, we obtain
Similarly, one can find that
3.2. Existence Results
We rely on the Leray–Schauder alternative [20] to establish our first existence result.
Theorem 2.
Proof.
Notice that continuity of the functions and implies that of the operator Next, it will be shown that the operator is completely continuous. Consider a bounded set of . Then, there exist positive constants and such that In consequence, for all , we obtain
which yields
Analogously, one can obtain
Hence, we have
Consequently, the operator is uniformly bounded. To establish equicontinuity property of the operator , let with . Then, we have
independently of Hence, is equicontinuous. Similarly, it can be shown that is equicontinuous. Thus, it follows by the foregoing arguments that the operator is completely continuous.
Lastly, it will be shown that the set is bounded. Let , then for all and that
Thus, we have
Consequently, we obtain
which can be expressed as
where
The proof of the next existence result relies on Krasnosel’skiĭ’s fixed point theorem [21].
Theorem 3.
Assume that are two continuous functions which satisfy Condition (17) of Theorem 1. Moreover, it is assumed that
- There exist P and such that
Proof.
Let us first decompose the operator into four operators and as
Observe that and Consider a closed ball with As in the proof of Theorem 2, one can obtain
and
Therefore, we obtain
Consequently, Next, it will be accomplished that the is a contraction. As argued in proving Theorem 1, for , one can find that
and
From Equations (23) and (24), we obtain
which, owing to the Condition (22), shows that the operator is a contraction. In view of the continuity property of and , the operator is continuous. Moreover,
as and
Thus, is uniformly bounded.
In the next step, we establish that the set is equicontinuous. For , and for all , we have
independently of Analogously, one can obtain that
4. Examples
Consider the following boundary value problem after fixing the parameters in the System (1) and (2):
Here, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , and , , , , , . Using the given values, we find that , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ( and are, respectively, given in Equations (9) and (8)), , , , ( are defined in (15)), , ( and are defined in (16)).
Example 1.
Let be the nonlinear Lipschitzian unbounded functions given by
which satisfy the Lipschitz condition:
with Lipschitz constants , , and . Furthermore, Thus, the hypotheses of Theorem 1 are satisfied and hence its conclusion implies that the Problem (25) with functions and given by Equations (26) and (27), respectively, has a unique solution on the interval .
Example 2.
5. Conclusions
In this work, we have established the existence and uniqueness results for a nonlinear nonlocal boundary value problem involving -Hilfer fractional derivative and -Riemann–Liouville fractional integral operators. In order to apply the fixed-point technique to the given problem, we first transform it into a fixed-point problem, which facilitates the application of the fixed point theorems chosen for the present analysis. Our problem is novel in the given configuration and the results obtained for it are of more general form. Some new results arising as special cases from our work are listed below.
- By letting in the present results, we obtain the ones for coupled boundary conditions involving only -Hilfer derivative operators:
- For , our results correspond to the -Riemann–Liouville fractional type integral boundary conditions:
- Fixing and in the present results, we obtain the ones for the mixed boundary conditions of the form:
- Letting and in the present results, we obtain the ones for the mixed boundary condition:
Author Contributions
Conceptualization, S.K.N.; methodology, A.S., S.K.N., B.A. and J.T.; validation, A.S., S.K.N., B.A. and J.T.; formal analysis, A.S., S.K.N., B.A. and J.T. writing—original draft preparation, A.S., S.K.N., B.A. and J.T. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.
Funding
This research was funded by National Science, Research and Innovation Fund (NSRF) and King Mongkut’s University of Technology North Bangkok with Contract no. KMUTNB-FF-66-11.
Institutional Review Board Statement
Not applicable.
Informed Consent Statement
Not applicable.
Data Availability Statement
Not applicable.
Acknowledgments
The authors thank the reviewers for their constructive remarks on their work.
Conflicts of Interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
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