The Fractional Calculus

The product of a collaboration between a mathematician and a chemist, this text is geared toward advanced undergraduates and graduate students. Not only does it explain the theory underlying the properties of the generalized operator, but it also illustrates the wide variety of fields to which these ideas may be applied. Rather than an exhaustive treatment, it represents an introduction that will appeal to a broad spectrum of students. Accordingly, the mathematics is kept as simple as possible.
The first of the two-part treatment deals principally with the general properties of differintegral operators. The second half is mainly oriented toward the applications of these properties to mathematical and other problems. Topics include integer order, simple and complex functions, semiderivatives and semi-integrals, and transcendental functions. The text concludes with overviews of applications in the classical calculus and diffusion problems.

Keith B. Oldham is Professor of Chemistry at Trent University in Ontario, and Jerome Spanier is a research mathematician at the University of California at Irvine.