1. Introduction and Preliminaries
Our exposition starts by looking back on some basic concepts, notations, and established results for metric, metric-like and partial metric spaces.
Metric spaces were introduced in 1906 by Maurice Fréchet in his seminal work [
1] as follows:
Definition 1. Let X be a nonempty set. A mapping  is said to be a metric on X if for all  the following three conditions hold:
(1)  if and only if 
(2) 
(3) 
 If 
 is a metric on 
 then the pair 
 is said to be a metric space. The theory of metric spaces contains several branches of mathematical analysis: real analysis, complex analysis and multidimensional analysis (for more details, see [
2]).
Partial metric spaces were introduced in 1994 by Matthews [
3] as follows.
Definition 2. Let X be a nonempty set. A mapping  is said to be a partial metric on X if for all  the following four conditions hold:
(1)  if and only if 
(2) 
(3) 
(4) 
 Then, the pair 
 is called a partial metric space. It can be checked that every metric space is also a partial metric space. The opposite is not true. In that spirit, let 
 and partial metric be defined as 
 Under these circumstances 
 constitutes a partial metric space but it does not constitute a metric space, since 
 To acquire more details on this, we point to following works [
4,
5,
6,
7,
8,
9]:
Metric-like spaces were introduced in 2012 by A. Amini Harandi [
10] in following way:
Definition 3. Let X be a nonempty set. A mapping  is said to be a metric-like on X if for  the following three conditions hold:
(1)  yields 
(2) 
(3) 
 The pair  is called a metric-like space or dislocated metric space in some papers. A metric-like mapping  on X satisfies all the conditions of a metric except that  may be positive for some  Below we assemble a short list of representative examples of partial metric and metric-like spaces:
1.  where  for all 
It can be seen that  is a partial metric space, and a metric-like space, but it is not a metric space, due to the fact that 
2.  where  for all 
It can be checked that  is a metric-like space where  for each  Since  it follows that  does not hold. Hence,  is not a partial metric space.
3.  where  and 
Also, it can be seen that  is a metric-like (that is a dislocated metric) space with  This means that  is not a standard metric space. However,  also is not a partial metric space, because 
4.  where  is the set of real continuous functions on  and  for all 
This is an example of metric-like space that is not a partial metric space. Indeed, for  we obtain  Putting  for all  we obtain that 
We note here that some of the metric-like spaces exemplified in the former list do not represent partial metric spaces. We also note that a partial metric space also represents a metric-like space but the opposite is not true. In the sequel, we will give the definitions related to sequences in metric-like spaces, on their convergence and Cauchyness (for more details, see [
7,
9,
10,
11,
12,
13]).
Definition 4. Let  be a sequence in a metric-like space 
 - (i)
  is said to converge to  if 
- (ii)
  is said to be Cauchy in  if  exists and is finite;
- (iii)
 A metric-like space 
 is 
complete if for every 
Cauchy sequence 
 in 
X there exists an 
 such that
          
Interested readers can find more details on metric-like and partial metric spaces in following selected references (e.g., [
3,
6,
7,
9,
10,
11,
12]). Further investigation on generalization of metric spaces to other classes of generalized metric spaces and on definition of contractive mappings can be found in variety of papers [
2,
13,
14,
15,
16,
17,
18,
19,
20]:
Remark 1. Following remark is valid for the metric-like spaces, and also in the case of partial metric spaces. Notably, as examples in Remark 1.4 (1) and (2) in [6] illustrate, a sequence doesn’t need to have a unique limit and a convergent sequence doesn’t need to be a Cauchy sequence. On the other hand, if the sequence  is Cauchy sequence in a way that  holds in complete metric-like space  then such a sequence has a unique limit. Demonstrably, in such a case if  as  we get that  (from condition (iii) of Definition 4). Now, if  and  we get  Under the condition (1) from Definition 3, what follows is that  which forms a contradiction.
Otherwise, the sequence  in metric-like space  is called Cauchy if  In this case the metric-like space  is complete if in it each Cauchy sequence is convergent. Since every Cauchy sequence is Cauchy it yields that complete partial metric space is complete.
In the continuation of our exposition we present some statements valid for metric-like spaces, for which the proofs are immediate.
Proposition 1. Let  be a metric-like space and  be a sequence in it. Then we have the following:
- (i) 
 If  converges to  as  and if  then for all  it follows that 
- (ii) 
 If  then 
- (iii) 
 If  then 
- (iv) 
 If  then 
- (v) 
  holds for all  where 
- (vi) 
 Let  If  then there exists  and sequences  and  such that  and the following sequences tend to  when  If the condition (vi) is satisfied then the sequences  and
 also converge to  when  where  For more details on (i)–(vi) the reader can see [7,13]. - (vii) 
 If  is a Picard sequence in a metric-like space  induced by a mapping  and if  for all  then  whenever 
 In 2012, Wardowski [
21] introduced a new type of mapping 
 named 
contraction by defining a list of properties for the function 
- (F1):
 F is strictly increasing, i.e.,  yields 
- (F2):
 For each sequence  in  if and only if  and
- (F3):
 There exists  such that 
		  and proved a fixed point result as a generalization of the Banach contraction principle in different way. By  we denote a family of functions satisfying properties (F1–F3).
Definition 5 ([
21]). 
Let  be a metric space. A mapping  is called an F-contraction if there exists  such thatfor all  with  where F satisfies (F1), (F2) and (F3). On the same line Secelean [
20] changed the condition (F2) of [
21] by an equivalent condition,
- (F2’)’:
  or, also, by
- (F2”):
 there exists a sequence  of positive real numbers such that 
and later Piri and Kumam [
18] replaced condition (F3) of [
21] by
- (F3’):
 F is continuous on 
Authors in [
22] take (F1) of [
21] and (F3’) of [
18] and denote the class of functions satisfying (F1) and (F3’) by 
 For more new results in this subject see [
16,
23,
24,
25,
26,
27].
  2. Main Results
After giving the overview of the results related to metric, partial metric and metric-like spaces, as well as recollecting the notion of an F-contraction, the properties of function family involved with it, as well as some recent variations of the required set of function properties, we move to the main goal of the paper, which is an attempt to generalize, complement, unify, enrich and extend all the results recently obtained in [
24]. Namely, firstly in [
28] authors introduced and proved the following:
Definition 6 ([
28]). 
Let  be a metric space. A mapping  is called an F-contraction of Hardy-Rogers-type if there exist  and  such thatholds for any  with  where  are non-negative numbers,  and  Theorem 1 ([
28]). 
Consider  to be a complete metric space and let T be a mapping of X into itself. If one assumes that T is an F-contraction of Hardy-Rogers- type, with , then the mapping T has a fixed point. Further, if  holds, then the fixed point of the mapping T is unique. After that, authors in [
24] proved the next proper generalization of results from [
28]:
Theorem 2 ([
24]). 
Let T be a self-mapping of a complete metric space X. Suppose that there exists  such that for all  yieldswhere  is a strictly increasing mapping,  are non-negative numbers,  Then T has a unique fixed point  and for every  the sequence  converges to  Second new generalization given also in [
24] shows that the monotonicity of 
F is not a necessary condition.
Theorem 3 ([
24]). 
Let T be a self-mapping of a complete metric space X. If we assume that there exists  such that for all  the following holdswhere  is a mapping satisfying conditions (F2) and (F3”), where (F3”): F is continuous on  with α being a positive real number.Then, the mapping T has a unique fixed point  and for every  the sequence  converges to 
 As our first result in this section are new contractive conditions that follow from the previous two theorems. They complement the ones given in [
19,
29]. Here we formulate the following:
Corollary 1. Let  be a complete metric space and  be a self-mapping. Suppose that there exist  such that for all  the following inequalities hold:where  while  are non-negative numbers,  Then in each of these cases, there exists  such that  and for every  the sequence  converges to   Proof.  As each of the functions  is strictly increasing on  the proof immediately yields by Theorem 2. It is clear that the proofs for (8–10) yields also by Theorem 3.    □
 Our second new result in this section is extending of Theorems 2 and 3 from standard metric to partial metric space. That is, we give the next:
Theorem 4. Let T be a self-mapping of a 0-complete partial metric space . Suppose there exists  such that for all  yieldswhere  is a strictly increasing mapping,  are non-negative numbers  Then T has a unique fixed point  and for every  the sequence  converges to   Proof.  First of all, (12) yields that
        
        whenever 
 In the first step, we show that 
T has a unique fixed point if it exists. Indeed, let 
 be two distinct fixed points of 
 From (13) follows
        
Since,  then  therefore (14) yields  But, this is a contradiction.
Now, we consider the Picard’s sequence 
 induced by an arbitrary point 
 If 
 for some 
 then 
 is a unique fixed point of 
 Therefore, assume that 
 for all 
 For this case, according to (13) we get:
        
        where 
 For the proof of the last inequality we used (
2) with 
 as well as (
4) with 
 Further, (15) and the last inequality imply
        
Since, 
 it follows that 
 Indeed, if 
 then 
 i.e., 
 This means that 
 that is, 
 But this is a contradiction. Now, further (16) yields
        
        for all 
 Since, the sequence 
 is strictly decreasing, so there exists 
 Suppose that 
By the other hand (12) became
        
        where 
 Since 
F is strictly increasing there exists 
 so taking the limit as 
 in (18) we get 
 which is a contradiction. Hence, 
Now, we can show that 
 is a 
Cauchy sequence. If it is not, putting in (12) 
 we get:
        
        where 
 Further, according to Proposition 1. (vi) we get 
 Since 
, then 
, so 
. Now, taking the limit in (19) as 
 we obtain 
 which is a contradiction. Hence, we have proved that 
 is a 
Cauchy sequence. Since 
 is a 
-complete partial metric space, then 
 converges to some point 
 in 
 By (17) and Proposition 1. (vii) it follows that 
 for some 
 Assume that 
 Then according to (13) we get
        
        for 
 Since, 
 we further have that
        
        which is a contradiction. Hence, 
 is a unique fixed point of 
    □
 It is worth to noticing that from our Theorem 4 follow several significant results in the context of 0-complete partial metric spaces. As a first we have the following:
Corollary 2. Let  be a complete partial metric space and T be a self-mapping on  Assume that there exist  a strictly increasing mapping and  such thatfor all  with  Then T has a unique fixed point  in X and for every  the sequence  converges to   Proof.  Taking  in Theorem 4 the result follows.
Also taking in Theorem 4,  (resp. ) we get Reich (resp. Kannan; Chatterjea) type theorem in the context of complete partial metric spaces where  is a strictly increasing mapping.    □
 The following new result shows that the monotonicity condition of F is not necessary:
Theorem 5. Let T be a self-mapping of a complete partial metric space . Suppose there exists  such that for all  yieldswhere  is a mapping satisfying the conditions (F2) and (F3”).  Then T has a unique fixed point  and for every  the sequence  converges to 
Proof.  First, if 
T has a fixed point then (23) yields that it is a unique. Further, if 
 is an arbitrary point in 
X and the sequence 
 is the corresponding Picard’s sequence with 
 for some 
 then 
 is a unique fixed point of 
 Therefore, let 
 for all 
. Hence, we assume that 
 for all 
 Now, by the hypothesis we get
        
        as 
 Hence, according to (F2) it follows that 
 as 
 Further it is clear that 
 from which it follows 
 if 
 Now we can claim that 
 is a 
Cauchy. Indeed, if it is not, putting 
 in (23) we obtain
        
By (F3”), taking the limit in (25) as 
 we get 
 which is a contradiction. Therefore, 
 is a 
Cauchy sequence. Since, 
 is a 
complete it yields that 
 converges to some point 
 We shall prove that 
 If it is not true, then (because 
 if 
 there exists 
 such that 
 Further, for such 
n we have
        
By (F3”), taking the limit as  in (26) we get  Now, by (F2) and Proposition 1. (i) yields that  This is a contradiction. Therefore,  is a fixed point of  Theorem is completely proved.    □
 Our third new result here is the extension of Theorems 2 and 3 from the ordinary metric space to metric-like space. The proofs are very similar to the proofs for Theorems 4 and 5 and that is why we omit them.
Theorem 6. Let T be a self-mapping of a complete metric-like space . Suppose there exists  such that for all  yieldswhere  is a strictly increasing mapping,  are non-negative numbers  Then T has a unique fixed point  and for every  the sequence  converges to   In the following result as in Theorem 5 we show that the monotonicity condition of F is not necessary:
Theorem 7. Let T be a self-mapping of a complete metric-like space . Assume that there exists , such that for all  yieldswhere  is a mapping satisfying the conditions (F2) and (F3”), where (F3”): F is continuous on  with α a positive real number. Then, the mapping T has a unique fixed point  and for every  the sequence  converges to .
 As the immediate corollaries of Theorem 4 we obtain several new contractive conditions that supplement the ones given in [
19,
29].
Corollary 3. Let T be a self-mapping of a complete partial metric space . Suppose there exist  such that for all  it followswhere  while  are non-negative numbers:  Then in every of these cases (29)–(35) T has a unique fixed point  and for  the sequence  converges to   Proof.  Take in Theorem 4,  respectively. Because each of the mappings  is strictly increasing on  the result is an immediate consequence of Theorem 4.    □
 Finally, we state an application of Theorem 6 for solving fractional differential equations. This is in fact a support for our theoretical result established in Theorem 6. We will use metric like distance 
For 
 a continuous function we recall the Caputo derivative of function 
f order 
 as follows, see [
30,
31]
      
      where 
 denotes the integer part of the positive real number 
 and 
 is a well known gamma function.
Our main purpose is to give an application to Theorem 6 to prove the existence of the solution for nonlinear fractional differential equation
      
      with the boundary conditions 
 where 
 and 
 is the set of all continuous functions from 
 to ℝ and 
 is a continuous function, see [
32]. Let us give the Green’s function associated with the problem (36) as follows
      
Now we give the next main result that support our Theorem 6.
Theorem 8. Consider the nonlinear fractional differential Equation (36). Let  be a given mapping and  be a continuous function. Suppose that the following assertions are true: - (i) 
 there exists  such that  for all  where  is defined by - (ii) 
 there exists  such that for all  and  yieldsfor all  and  with  where  are non-negative numbers,  - (iii) 
 for each  and 
- (iv) 
 for each  if  is a sequence in  such that  in  and  for all  then  for all 
Then problem (36) has at least one solution.
 Proof.  Let 
 endowed with the metric-like
        
We can prove easily that  is a 0-complete metric-like space.
Obviously  is a solution of (36) if and only if  is a solution of the equation  for all  Then problem (36) can be considered to find an  which is a fixed point for the mapping 
Let 
 such that 
 for all 
 By (iii) we have 
 Then, by (i) and (ii) we get the next inequalities
        
If we take 
 for 
 and since 
F is strictly increasing we get
        
Equivalently
        
        where 
 is a strictly increasing mapping, 
 are non-negative numbers, 
Applying Theorem 6. we deduce that 
T has a fixed point, which yields that the Equation (
36) has at least one solution.    □