Formulation of Euler-Lagrange equations for fractional variational problems

This paper presents extensions to traditional calculus of variations for systems containing fractional derivatives. The fractional derivative is described in the Riemann-Liouville sense. Specifically, we consider two problems, the simplest fractional variational problem and the fractional variational problem of Lagrange. Results of the first problem are extended to problems containing multiple fractional derivatives and unknown functions. For the second problem, we also present a Lagrange type multiplier rule. For both problems, we develop the Euler-Lagrange type necessary conditions which must be satisfied for the given functional to be extremum. Two problems are considered to demonstrate the application of the formulation. The formulation presented and the resulting equations are very similar to those that appear in the field of classical calculus of variations. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science (USA). All rights reserved.