1.
Introduction
Fractional calculus deals with the study of fractional order integral and derivative operators over real or complex domains. The subject of fractional differential equations has become a hot topic for the researchers due to its intensive development and applications in the field of physics, mechanics, chemistry, engineering, etc. For a reader interested in the systematic development of the topic, we refer the books [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8].
Since the beginning of the fractional calculus there are numerous definitions of integrals and fractional derivatives, and over time, new derivatives and fractional integrals arise. Hilfer in [9] generalized both Riemann-Liouville and Caputo fractional derivatives to Hilfer fractional derivative of order α∈(0,1) and a type β∈[0,1] which can be reduced to the Riemann-Liouville and Caputo fractional derivatives when β=0 and β=1, respectively. For more details see [10,11] and references cited therein.
In [2], a fractional derivative of a function with respect to another function were introduced, by using the fractional derivative in the Riemann-Liouville sense. Almeida [12] using the idea of the fractional derivative in the Caputo sense, proposes a new fractional derivative, called ψ-Caputo derivative with respect to another function ψ, which generalizes a class of fractional derivatives. In [13], the authors, by using the Hilfer fractional derivative idea, proposed a fractional differential operator of a function with respect to another ψ-function, the so-called ψ-Hilfer fractional derivative. The ψ-Hilfer fractional derivative has as advantage the freedom of choice of the classical differential operator, see, for example, [14,15].
Initial value problems involving Hilfer fractional derivatives were studied by several authors, see for example [16,17,18] and references therein. In [19], the authors initiated the study of nonlocal boundary value problems for Hilfer fractional derivative. Recently, in [20], the results in [19] was extended to ψ-Hilfer nonlocal implicit fractional boundary value problems. In [21], the existence and uniqueness of solutions were studied, for a new class of boundary value problems of sequential ψ-Hilfer-type fractional differential equations with multi-point boundary conditions.
The Langevin equation (first formulated by Langevin in 1908 to give an elaborate description of Brownian motion) is found to be an effective tool to describe the evolution of physical phenomena in fluctuating environments [22]. For some new developments on the fractional Langevin equation, see, for example, [23], [24], [25].
In [26], the authors considered a boundary value problem of Langevin fractional differential equations with ψ-Hilfer fractional derivative and nonlocal integral boundary conditions, given by
where Dχi,βi;ψ, i=1,2 is the ψ-Hilfer fractional derivative of order χi, 0<χi<1 and type βi, 0≤βi≤1, i=1,2, 1<χ1+χ2≤2, k∈R, a≥0, f:J×R→R is a continuous function, Iδi;ψ is ψ-Riemann-Liouville fractional integral of order δi>0, λi∈R, i=1,2,…,m and 0≤a≤τ1<τ2<…<τm≤b. Existence and uniqueness results are established by using Krasnosel'ski∨i's fixed point theorem, Leray-Schauder nonlinear alternative and Banach contraction mapping principle.
In the present work, we study a coupled system consisting by ψ-Hilfer fractional order Langevin equations supplemented with nonlocal integral boundary conditions of the form
where HDu,v;ψa+ is ψ-Hilfer fractional derivatives of order u∈{α1,α2,p1,p2} with 0<u≤1 and v∈{β1,β2,q1,q2} with 0≤v≤1, Iw;ψa+ is ψ-Riemann-Liouville fractional integral of order w={δi,κj}, w>0, the points θi, ξj∈[a,b], i=1,2,…,m, j=1,2,…,n, λ1, λ2∈R, f, g∈C([a,b]×R2,R) and b>a≥0.
The rest of the paper is organized as follows. In Section 2 we outline the basic concepts from fractional calculus and prove an auxiliary lemma for the linear variant of the problem (1.2). Then, by applying Banach's fixed point theorem, we derive the existence and uniqueness result for the problem (1.2), while the existence result is established via Leray-Schauder alternative. Example illustrating the main results are also presented.
2.
Background material and auxiliary results
This section, is assigned to recall some notation in relation to fractional calculus.
Let S=C([a,b],R) be the space equipped with the norm defined by ‖x‖=sup{|x(t)|:t∈J}. Obviously (S,‖⋅‖) is a Banach space and, consequently, the product space (S×S,‖⋅‖) is a Banach space with the norm ‖(x,y)‖=‖x‖+‖y‖ for (x,y)∈S×S and the n-times absolutely continuous functions given by
Definition 2.1. [2] Let (a,b), (−∞≤a<b≤∞), be a finite or infinite interval of the half-axis R+ and α∈R+. Also let ψ(x) be an increasing and positive monotone function on (a,b], having a continuous derivative ψ′(x) on (a,b). The ψ-Riemann-Liouville fractional integral of a function f with respect to another function ψ on [a,b] is defined by
where Γ(⋅) is represent the Gamma function.
Definition 2.2. [2] Let ψ′(t)≠0 and α>0, n∈N. The Riemann–Liouville derivatives of a function f with respect to another function ψ of order α correspondent to the Riemann–Liouville, is defined by
where n=[α]+1, [α] is represent the integer part of the real number α.
Definition 2.3. [13] Let n−1<α<n with n∈N, [a,b] is the interval such that −∞≤a<b≤∞ and f,ψ∈Cn([a,b],R) two functions such that ψ is increasing and ψ′(t)≠0, for all t∈[a,b]. The ψ-Hilfer fractional derivative of a function f of order α and type 0≤ρ≤1, is defined by
where n=[α]+1, [α] represents the integer part of the real number α with γ=α+ρ(n−α).
Lemma 2.4. [2] Let α,β>0. Then we have the following semigroup property given by,
Next, we present the ψ-fractional integral and derivatives of a power function.
Proposition 2.5. [2,13] Let α≥0, υ>0 and t>a. Then, ψ-fractional integral and derivative of a power function are given by
(i) Iα;ψa+(ψ(s)−ψ(a))υ−1(t)=Γ(υ)Γ(υ+α)(ψ(t)−ψ(a))υ+α−1.
(ii) HDα,ρ;ψa+(ψ(s)−ψ(a))υ−1(t)=Γ(υ)Γ(υ−α)(ψ(t)−ψ(a))υ−α−1,n−1<α<n,υ>n.
Lemma 2.6. [27] Let m−1<α<m, n−1<β<n, n,m∈N, n≤m, 0≤ρ≤1 and α≥β+ρ(n−β). If f∈Cn(J,R), then
Lemma 2.7. [13] If f∈Cn(J,R), n−1<α<n, 0≤ρ≤1 and γ=α+ρ(n−α) then
for all t∈J, where f[n]ψf(t):=(1ψ′(t)ddt)nf(t).
The following lemma deals with a linear variant of the system (1.2).
Lemma 2.8. Let 0<α1,α2,p1,p2≤1, 0≤β1,β2,q1,q2≤1, γ1=α1+β1(1−α1), γ2=p1+q1(1−p1), φ1=α2+β2(1−α2), φ2=p2+q2(1−p2), h1, h2∈S and Ω≠0. Then the solution for the linear system of ψ-Hilfer fractional Langevin differential equations of the form:
is equivalent to the integral equations
and
where
Proof. Let x∈S be a solution of the problem (2.7). Taking the operator Iα1;ψa+ on both sides of (2.7) and using Lemma 2.7, we have
where c1∈R. Applying the operator Ip1;ψa+ on both sides of (2.15) and using Lemma 2.7 again, we get
where c1, c2 are arbitrary constants.
In the same process, let y∈S be a solution of the problem (2.7). Applying the operators Iα2;ψa+ and Ip2;ψa+, respectively, on both sides of the second equation in (2.7) and using Lemma 2.7, we obtain
where d1, d2 are arbitrary constants. Using the boundary conditions x(a)=0 and y(a)=0, respectively in (2.16) and (2.17), we find that c2=0 and d2=0. Hence we have
Using (2.18) and (2.19) in the conditions x(b)=∑mi=1ηiIδi;ψa+y(θi) and y(b)=∑nj=1μjIκj;ψa+x(ξj), we obtain a system of equations in the unknown constants c1 and d1 given by
where Ω1, Ω2, Ω3, Ω4 are given by (2.10), (2.11), (2.12), (2.13), respectively, and
Solving the system (2.20)-(2.21) for c1 and d1, it follows that
Inserting values c1 and d1 in (2.18) and (2.19) respectively together with notations Ω1, Ω2, Ω3, Ω4, A1, and A2 lead to solutions (2.8) and (2.9).
Conversely, it is easily to shown, by a direct computation, that the solution x(t) and y(t) are given by (2.8) and (2.9) satisfies the problem (2.7) under the nonlocal integral boundary conditions. The proof of Lemma 2.8 is completed.
Fixed point theorems play a major role in establishing the existence theory for the system (1.2). We collect here the well-known fixed point theorems used in this paper.
Lemma 2.9. (Banach fixed point theorem) [28] Let X be a Banach space, D⊂X closed and F:D→D a strict contraction, i.e. |Fx−Fy|≤k|x−y| for some k∈(0,1) and all x,y∈D. Then F has a unique fixed point in D.
Lemma 2.10. (Leray-Schauder alternative [29]). Let K:D→D be a complete continuous operator (i.e., a map that restricted to any bounded set in D is compact). Let
Then either the set M(K) is unbounded, or K has at least one fixed point.
3.
Existence and uniqueness results
In this section, we discuss existence and uniqueness results to the purposed system (1.2).
Throughout this paper, the expression Iq,ρ0+f(s,x(s),y(s))(c) means that
where u∈{p1,p2,α1+p1,α2+p2,p2+δi,α2+p2+δi,p1+κj,α1+p1+κj} and c∈{t,a,b,θi, ξj}, i=1,2,…,m, j=1,2,…,n.
In view of Lemma 2.8, we define an operator Q:S×S→S×S by
where
and
It should be noticed that the system (1.2) has solutions if and only if Q has fixed points.
For the sake of convenience, we use the following notations:
3.1. Uniqueness result via Banach's fixed point theorem
In the first result, we establish the existence and uniqueness of solutions for system (1.2), by applying Banach's fixed point theorem.
Theorem 3.1. Let Ω≠0, f, g:[a,b]×R2→R be continuous functions. In addition, we assume that:
(H1) There exist constants L1, L2>0 such that, ∀t∈[a,b] and x1, x2, y1 y2∈R,
Then system (1.2) has a unique solution on [a,b], provided that Φ1<1, where
Proof. Firstly, we transform the system (1.2) into a fixed point problem, (x,y)(t)=Q(x,y)(t), where the operator Q is defined as in (3.1). Applying the Banach contraction mapping principle, we shall show that the operator Q has a unique fixed point, which is the unique solution of system (1.2).
Let supt∈[a,b]|f(t,0,0)|:=M1<∞ and supt∈[a,b]|g(t,0,0)|:=N1<∞. Next, we set Br1:={(x,y)∈S×S:‖(x,y)‖≤r1} with
Observe that Br1 is a bounded, closed, and convex subset of S. The proof is divided into two steps:
Step Ⅰ. We show that QBr1⊂Br1.
For any (x,y)∈Br1, t∈[a,b], using the condition (H1), we have
and
Then, we get
Similarly, we find that
Consequently, we have
which implies that QBr1⊂Br1.
Step Ⅱ. We show that Q:S→S is a contraction.
Using condition (H1), for any (x1,y1), (x2,y2)∈S×S and for each t∈[a,b], we have
Similarly, we get that
Consequently, we get
which, by condition (3.9), implies that the operator Q is a contraction. Therefore, by the conclusion of Banach contraction mapping principle (Lemma 2.9), the operator Q has a unique fixed point. Hence, system (1.2) has a unique solution on [a.b]. The proof is completed.
3.2. Existence result via Leray-Schauder alternative
In the second result, we apply the Leray-Schauder alternative to investigate the existence of solutions for the system (1.2).
For convenience, we set:
where Λ1(⋅), Λ2(⋅), Λ3(⋅) and Λ4(⋅) are given by (3.5), (3.6), (3.7) and (3.8) respectively.
Theorem 3.2. Let f, g:[a,b]×R2→R be continuous functions such that the following condition holds:
(H2) There exist real constants Ki, ¯Ki≥0 for i=1,2,3, such that, for x, y∈R,
Then, the system (1.2) has at least one solution on [a,b] provided that
where E1(⋅) and E2(⋅) are given by (3.11) and (3.12) respectively.
Proof. The process of the proof is divided into several steps:
Firstly, we show that the operator Q:S×S→S×S is completely continuous. Note that the operator Q, defined by (3.1), is continuous in view of the continuity of f and g.
Let Br2⊂S×S be a bounded set, where Br2={(x,y)∈S×S:‖(x,y)‖≤r2}. Then, for any (x,y)∈Br2, there exist positive real numbers ¯f and ¯g such that |f(t,x(t),y(t))|≤¯f and |g(t,x(t),y(t))|≤¯g.
Thus, for each (x,y)∈Br2 we have
In similar process, we have that
Therefore, it follows that
which implies that the operator Q is uniformly bounded.
In the next step, we show that the operator Q is equicontinuous. Let τ1, τ2∈[a,b] with τ1<τ2. Then, we can compute that
In the same process, we deduce that
Consequently, the operator Q(x,y) is equicontinuous. By Arzelá-Ascoli theorem, the operator Q(x,y) is completely continuous.
At last process, we show that the set U={(x,y)∈S×S|(x,y)=σQ(x,y),0≤σ≤1} is a bounded. Let (x,y)∈U, with (x,y)=σQ(x,y). For any t∈[a,b], we obtain
By using condition (H3), we can calculate that
and
Hence, we have
and
From the above inequalities, we get
which implies that
where E0=min{1−Φ2,1−Φ3}. Hence the set U is bounded. Thus, by Lemma 2.10, the operator Q has at least one fixed point, which implies that system (1.2) has at least one solution on [a,b]. This completes the proof.
4.
Examples
This section is devoted to the illustration of the results derived in previous sections.
Example 4.1. Consider the following nonlocal boundary problem of the form:
Here αk=√e/(k+1), βk=(k+4)/10, pk=3√e/(k+1), qk=(3k+1)/10, λk=(15−5k)/100, k=1,2, ψ(t)=et/6, ηi=ln2/(i+1), δi=ln((6−i)/2), θi=(2i−1)/10, i=1,2,3, μj=ln(j+1)/j, κj=ln((j+3)/3), ξj=(2j+3)/10, j=1,2, a=0 and b=1.2. From (2.14) with the given data, we can compute that of
Then, Ω1≈0.6261, Ω2≈0.0580, Ω3≈0.1687, Ω4≈0.8476, and Ω=Ω1Ω4−Ω2Ω3≈0.5209≠0. In addition, Table 1 shows the numerical results of Ωi for i=1,2,3,4, and Ω for a variety of t∈(0,1.2). These results are shown in Figure 1.
(i) To demonstrate the application of Theorem 3.1, let us take
For xi, yi∈R, i=1,2 and t∈[0,1.2], we get the inequalities
The assumption (H1) is fulfilled with Λ1(α1+p1)≈0.3530, Λ2(α2+p2)≈0.0336, Λ3(α1+p1)≈0.0626, Λ4(α2+p2)≈0.7669, Λ1(p1)≈1.1549, Λ2(p2)≈0.0866, Λ3(p1)≈1.2941, Λ4(p2)≈1.4749, L1=3/25 and L2=1/5. Also Φ1≈0.4329<1, and thus by Theorem 3.1, the system (4.1), with f and g given by (4.2), has a unique solution on [0,1.2]. In addition, Tables 2 and 3 show the numerical results of Λi(U) for i=1,2,3,4, where U={α1+p1,α2+p2,p1,p2} and Φ1 for a variety of t∈(0,1.2). These results are shown in Figures 2-4.
(ii) To illustrate Theorem 3.2 let
For x, y∈R and t∈[0,1.2], we have
From (3.11)-(3.12) with the given datas, we have E1(α1+p1)≈0.4156, E2(α2+p2)≈0.8005, E1(p1)≈1.4489, and E2(p2)≈1.5614. The assumption (H2) is satisfied with K1=1/5, K2=3/10, K3=3/25, ¯K1=3/10, ¯K2=6/25 and ¯K3=4/25. Hence, we get Φ2≈0.4617<1 and Φ3≈0.2560<1. Since, all the assumptions of Theorem 3.2 are fulfilled, the system (4.1), with f and g given by (4.3), has at least one solution on [0,1.2]. In addition, Table 4 show the numerical results of Ei(U) for i=1,2, where U={α1+p1,α2+p2,p1,p2} and Φi for i=2,3 for a variety of t∈(0,1.2). These results are shown in Figures 5-6.
5.
Conclusions
We have discussed the existence and uniqueness of solutions for a coupled system consisting by ψ-Hilfer fractional order Langevin equations supplemented with nonlocal integral boundary conditions. We proved the uniqueness of the solutions in the first case using the Banach contraction mapping principle, and we established the existence of the findings in the second case using the Leray-Schauder alternative. The results of the present paper are new and significantly contribute to the existing literature on the topic. Moreover, several new results follow as special cases of the present one.
Acknowledgments
The first author would like to thank the King Mongkut's University of Technology North Bangkok for supporting in this work. The third author would like to thank for funding this work through the Center of Excellence in Mathematics (CEM), CHE, Sri Ayutthaya Rd., Bangkok, 10400, Thailand and Burapha University.
Conflict of interest
On behalf of all authors, the corresponding author states that there is no conflict of interest.