Time distributed-order diffusion-wave equation. I. Volterra-type equation

Abstract

A single-order time-fractional diffusion-wave equation is generalized by introducing a time distributed-order fractional derivative and forcing term, while a Laplacian is replaced by a general linear multi-dimensional spatial differential operator. The obtained equation is (in the case of the Laplacian) called a time distributed-order diffusion-wave equation. We analyse a Cauchy problem for such an equation by means of the theory of an abstract Volterra equation. The weight distribution, occurring in the distributedorder fractional derivative, is specified as the sum of the Dirac distributions and the existence and uniqueness of solutions to the Cauchy problem, and the corresponding Volterra-type equation were proven for a general linear spatial differential operator, as well as in the special case when the operator is Laplacian.