Fractional Integral
Denote the
th derivative
and the
-fold integral
. Then
 |
(1)
|
Now, if the equation
 |
(2)
|
for the multiple integral is true for
, then
Interchanging the order of integration gives
 |
(5)
|
But (3) is true for
, so it is also true for all
by induction. The fractional integral of
of order
can then be defined by
 |
(6)
|
where
is the gamma function.
More generally, the Riemann-Liouville operator of fractional integration is defined as
 |
(7)
|
for
with
(Oldham and Spanier 1974, Miller and Ross 1993, Srivastava and Saxena 2001, Saxena 2002).
The fractional integral of order 1/2 is called a semi-integral.
Few functions have a fractional integral expressible in terms of elementary functions. Exceptions include
where
is a lower incomplete gamma function and
is the Et-function. From (10), the fractional integral of the constant function
is given by
A fractional derivative can also be similarly defined. The study of fractional derivatives and integrals is called fractional calculus.
REFERENCES:
Miller, K. S. and Ross, B. An Introduction to the Fractional Calculus and Fractional Differential Equations. New York: Wiley, 1993.
Oldham, K. B. and Spanier, J. The Fractional Calculus: Integrations and Differentiations of Arbitrary Order. New York: Academic Press, 1974.
Samko, S. G.; Kilbas, A. A.; and Marichev, O. I. Fractional Integrals and Derivatives. Yverdon, Switzerland: Gordon and Breach, 1993.
Saxena, R. K.; Mathai, A. M.; and Haubold, H. J. "On Fractional Kinetic Equations." 23 Jun 2002. http://arxiv.org/abs/math.CA/0206240.
Srivastava, H. M. and Saxena, R. K. "Operators of Fractional Integration and Their Applications." Appl. Math. and Comput. 118, 1-52, 2001.