Agarwal et al.

Advances in Difference Equations 2013, 2013:128

http://www.advancesindifferenceequations.com/content/2013/1/128

RESEARCH Open Access

Existence of solutions for integro-differential

equations of fractional order with nonlocal
three-point fractional boundary conditions
Ravi P Agarwal1,2 , Sotiris K Ntouyas3 , Bashir Ahmad2* and Mohammed S Alhothuali2
*
Correspondence:
bashir_qau@yahoo.com Abstract
2
Department of Mathematics,
Faculty of Science, King Abdulaziz In this paper, we study the existence of solutions for Riemann-Liouville type
University, P.O. Box 80203, Jeddah, integro-differential equations of fractional order α ∈ (2, 3] with nonlocal three-point
21589, Saudi Arabia fractional boundary conditions via Sadovskii’s fixed point theorem for condensing
Full list of author information is
available at the end of the article maps. An illustrative example is also presented.
MSC: 34A08; 34B10; 34B15
Keywords: fractional differential equations; nonlocal integral boundary conditions;
existence; fixed point theorems

1 Introduction
Fractional calculus has recently evolved as an interesting and important field of research.
The much interest in the subject owes to its extensive applications in the mathematical
modeling of several phenomena in many engineering and scientific disciplines such as
physics, chemistry, biophysics, biology, blood flow problems, control theory, aerodynam-
ics, nonlinear oscillation of earthquake, the fluid-dynamic traffic model, polymer rheology,
regular variation in thermodynamics, economics, fitting of experimental data, etc. [, ].
A significant feature of a fractional order differential operator, in contrast to its counter-
part in classical calculus, is its nonlocal behavior. It means that the future state of a dynam-
ical system or process based on the fractional differential operator depends on its current
state as well its past states. It is equivalent to saying that differential equations of arbitrary
order are capable of describing memory and hereditary properties of certain important
materials and processes. This aspect of fractional calculus has contributed towards the
growing popularity of the subject.
Nonlocal initial and boundary value problems of nonlinear fractional order differen-
tial equations have recently been investigated by several researchers. The domain of study
ranges from the theoretical aspects (like existence, uniqueness, periodicity, asymptotic be-
havior, etc.) to the analytic and numerical methods for fractional differential equations. In
fact the theory of differential equations of fractional order (parallel to the well-known the-
ory of ordinary differential equations) has been growing independently for the last three
decades. For some recent development of the subject, we refer, for instance, to a series of
papers [–] and references cited therein.
In this paper, we discuss the existence of solutions for a boundary value problem of
integro-differential equations of fractional order with nonlocal three-point fractional

© 2013 Agarwal et al.; licensee Springer. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons
Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction
in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Agarwal et al. Advances in Difference Equations 2013, 2013:128 Page 2 of 9
http://www.advancesindifferenceequations.com/content/2013/1/128

boundary conditions
⎧
⎨–Dα x(t) = Af (t, x(t)) + BI β g(t, x(t)),  < α ≤ , t ∈ [, ],
()
⎩Dδ x() = , D δ+
x() = , D x() – Dδ x(η) = a,
δ

where  < δ ≤ , α – δ > ,  < β < ,  < η < , D(·) denotes the Riemann-Liouville fractional
derivative of order (·), f , g are given continuous functions, and A, B, a are real constants.
The objective of the present work is to establish the existence of solutions for the given
problem by applying Sadovskii’s fixed point theorem for condensing maps. It is imperative
to note that the application of Sadovskii’s fixed point theorem for condensing maps in the
present scenario is new. Moreover, the right-hand side of the fractional differential equa-
tion in () provides a liberty to fix it in terms of non-integral and integral terms. Observe
that the integral term in () is a Riemann-Liouville integral of order β ∈ (, ), which re-
t
duces to the classical integral term (  g(s, x(s)) ds) in the limit β → – . The nature of the
nonlinearity considered in the problem () becomes of non-integral type if we take B = 
in () and corresponds to integral type for A =  in (). Furthermore, the given bound-
ary conditions are also interesting and important from a physical point of view [, ] as
the condition Dδ x() – Dδ x(η) = a is a fractional analogue of the classical flux condition
x () – x (η) = a (the difference of flux values at the right end point and at an intermediate
point of the interval [, ] remains constant).

2 Auxiliary results
We recall here the following definitions.

Definition . The Riemann-Liouville fractional integral of order q for a continuous

function g is defined as

 t
q  g(s)
I g(t) = ds, q > ,
(q)  (t – s)–q

provided the integral exists.

Definition . The Riemann-Liouville derivative of fractional order q for a continuous

function g : (, ∞) → R is defined as

 n  t
q  d
D+ g(t) = (t – s)n–q– g(s) ds, n = [q] + ,
(n – q) dt 

where [q] denotes the integer part of the real number q.

By the substitution x(t) = I δ y(t) = D–δ y(t), where y(t) is a suitable continuous function,
the problem () takes the form
⎧
⎨–Dα–δ y(t) = Af (t, I δ y(t)) + BI β g(t, I δ y(t)), t ∈ [, ],
()
⎩y() = , y () = , y() – y(η) = a.
Agarwal et al. Advances in Difference Equations 2013, 2013:128 Page 3 of 9
http://www.advancesindifferenceequations.com/content/2013/1/128

Lemma . For any h ∈ C(, ) ∩ L(, ), the unique solution of the linear fractional bound-
ary value problem
⎧
⎨–Dα–δ y(t) = h(t), t ∈ [, ],
()
⎩y() = , 
y () = , y() – y(η) = a,

is

t α–δ–

y(t) = –I α–δ h(t) + α–δ–

a + I α–δ h() – I α–δ h(η) .
–η

Proof It is well known that the solutions of the fractional differential equation in () can
be written as []

y(t) = –I α–δ h(t) + c t α–δ– + c t α–δ– + c t α–δ– , ()

where c , c , c ∈ R are arbitrary constants. Using the given boundary conditions, we find
that c = , c =  and

c = α–δ–
a + I α–δ h() – I α–δ h(η) .
–η

Substituting these values in (), we get

t α–δ–

y(t) = –I α–δ h(t) + α–δ–

a + I α–δ h() – I α–δ h(η) .
–η

This completes the proof. 

Thus, the solution of a linear variant of the problem () can be written as

x(t) = I δ y(t)
 
t α–δ–

= I δ –I α–δ h(t) + a + I α–δ

h() – I α–δ
h(η)
 – ηα–δ–


t (t – s)δ– α–δ–
= –I α h(t) + a + I α–δ
h() – I α–δ
h(η) s ds
 – ηα–δ–  (δ)
 
α  α–δ α–δ

t α–  δ– α–δ–
= –I h(t) + a + I h() – I h(η) ( – ν) ν dν ,
 – ηα–δ– (δ) 

where we have used the substitution s = νt in the integral of the last term. Using the rela-
tion for beta function B(·, ·),
 
(α)(β + )
B(β + , α) = ( – u)α– uβ du = ,
 (α + β + )

we get

(α – δ)t α–

x(t) = –I α h(t) + α–δ–

a + I α–δ h() – I α–δ h(η) . ()
( – η )(α)
Agarwal et al. Advances in Difference Equations 2013, 2013:128 Page 4 of 9
http://www.advancesindifferenceequations.com/content/2013/1/128

The solution of the original nonlinear problem () can be obtained by replacing h with the
right-hand side of the fractional equation of () in ().
Let C = C([, ], R) denote the Banach space of all continuous functions from [, ] → R
endowed with the norm defined by x = sup{|x(t)|, t ∈ [, ]}.

Definition . Let M be a bounded set in a metric space (X, d), then the Kuratowskii mea-
sure of noncompactness α(M) is defined as inf{ : M covered by a finitely many sets such
that the diameter of each set ≤ }.

Definition . [] Let : D( ) ⊆ X → X be a bounded and continuous operator on a

Banach space X. Then is called a condensing map if α( (B)) < α(B) for all bounded sets
B ⊂ D( ), where α denotes the Kuratowski measure of noncompactness.

Lemma . [, Example .] The map K + C is a k-set contraction with  ≤ k < , and
thus also condensing, if
(i) K, C : D ⊆ X → X are operators on the Banach space X;
(ii) K is k-contractive, i.e.,

Kx – Ky ≤ kx – y

for all x, y ∈ D and fixed k ∈ [, );

(iii) C is compact.

Theorem . [] Let B be a convex, bounded and closed subset of a Banach space X and
let : B → B be a condensing map. Then has a fixed point.

3 Main result
In the following we denote by L/p ([, ], R+ ) the space of p -Lebesgue measurable functions
 
from [, ] to R+ with the norm μ = (  |μ(s)| p ds)p .

Theorem . Let f , g : [, ] × R → R be continuous functions satisfying the following con-
ditions:

(H ) f satisfies the Lipschitz condition

 
f (t, x) – f (t, y) ≤ L (t)|x – y| for all (t, x), (t, y) ∈ [, ] × R,

where L ∈ L/p ([, ], R+ ), p = min{q , q }, q ∈ (, ), q ∈ (, α – δ);

(H ) there exist a function m ∈ L/p ([, ], R+ ) and a nondecreasing function ψ : R+ → R+
such that

 

g(t, x) ≤ m(t)ψ x , ∀(t, x) ∈ [, ] × R.

Then the boundary value problem () has at least one solution, provided

   –p
|A|L   – p –p |A||Q|L  –p

γ := +  + ηα–δ–p < .
(α) α–p (α – δ) α – δ – p
Agarwal et al. Advances in Difference Equations 2013, 2013:128 Page 5 of 9
http://www.advancesindifferenceequations.com/content/2013/1/128

Proof Let Br = {x ∈ C : x ≤ r} be a closed bounded and convex subset of C := C([, ], R),
where r will be fixed later. Using (), we define a map : Br → C as

  t
(t – s)α–
t
(t – s)α+β–

( x)(t) = –A f s, x(s) ds – B g s, x(s) ds

 (α)  (α + β)
   α–δ–
( – s)

+ Qt α– a + A f s, x(s) ds
 (α – δ)
  α–δ+β–
( – s)

+B g s, x(s) ds
 (α – δ + β)
 η  η 
(η – s)α–δ–
(η – s)α–δ+β–

–A f s, x(s) ds – B g s, x(s) ds ,
 (α – δ)  (α – δ + β)

where

(α – δ)
Q= , ηα–δ– = .
( – ηα–δ– )(α)

Observe that the problem () is equivalent to a fixed point problem x = x.

Let us decompose as =  +  , where


(t – s)α–
t

(  x)(t) = –A f s, x(s) ds + aQt α–

 (α)
 
( – s)α–δ–

+ AQt α– f s, x(s) ds

 (α – δ)
 η α–δ– 
(η – s)

– f s, x(s) ds , t ∈ [, ]
 (α – δ)

and

(t – s)α+β–
t

(  x)(t) = –B g s, x(s) ds
 (α + β)
 
( – s)α–δ+β–

+ BQt α– g s, x(s) ds

 (α – δ + β)
 η 
(η – s)α–δ+β–

– g s, x(s) ds , t ∈ [, ].

 (α – δ + β)

Step . (Br ) ⊂ Br .
For that, we select r ≥ ω
–γ
, where

 –p
|B|m ψ(r) –p
ω = |A|σ +
(α + β) α+β –p
 –p
|B||Q|m ψ(r) –p

+  + ηα–δ+β–p ,
(α – δ + β) α–δ+β –p
 
 |Q|( + ηα– )  
σ = |a| + M + , sup f (t, ) = M < ∞.
(α + ) (α – δ + ) t∈[,]
Agarwal et al. Advances in Difference Equations 2013, 2013:128 Page 6 of 9
http://www.advancesindifferenceequations.com/content/2013/1/128

Using |f (t, x(t))| ≤ |f (t, x(t)) – f (t, )| + |f (t, )| ≤ L (t)r + M for x ∈ Br , t ∈ [, ], we get
  
  t
(t – s)α– ( – s)α–δ–
(  x)(t) ≤ |A|r L (s) ds + |Q| L (s) ds
 (α)  (α – δ)
 η 
(η – s)α–δ–
+ |Q| L (s) ds + σ |A|
 (α – δ)
 t –p    p
|A|r α–
≤ L (s) ds + σ |A|
p
(t – s) –p ds
(α)  
  –p    p
|A||Q|r α–δ–
+ ( – s) –p ds Lp (s) ds
(α – δ)  
α–δ–p  η –p    p
|A||Q|rη α–δ–
+ (η – s) –p ds Lp (s) ds
(α – δ)  
  –p  –p
 –p |Q| –p
≤ |A|r +
(α) α – p (α – δ) α – δ – p
  –p 
|Q|ηα–δ–p –p
+ L  + σ |A|.
(α – δ) α – δ – p

In a similar manner, we have that


  t
(t – s)α+β–
(  x)(t) ≤ |B| m(s)ψ(r) ds
 (α + β)
 
( – s)α–δ+β–
+ |B||Q| m(s)ψ(r) ds
 (α – δ + β)
 η
(η – s)α–δ+β–
+ |B||Q| m(s)ψ(r) ds
 (α – δ + β)
  –p
 –p
≤ |B|ψ(r)
(α + β) α + β – p
 –p 
|Q| –p

+ +η α–δ+β–p
m.
(α – δ + β) α – δ + β – p

Thus
     
( x)(t) ≤ (  x)(t) + (  x)(t)
    –p
  – p –p |Q| –p
≤ |A|r +
(α) α – p (α – δ) α – δ – p
  –p 
|Q|ηα–δ–p –p
+ L  + σ |A|
(α – δ) α – δ – p
  –p
 –p
+ |B|ψ(r)
(α + β) α + β – p
 –p 
|Q| –p

+ +η α–δ+β–p
m
(α – δ + β) α – δ + β – p
≤ γ r + ω ≤ r,

which implies that (Br ) ⊂ Br .

Agarwal et al. Advances in Difference Equations 2013, 2013:128 Page 7 of 9
http://www.advancesindifferenceequations.com/content/2013/1/128

Step .  is continuous and γ -contractive.

To show the continuity of  for t ∈ [, ], let us consider a sequence xn converging to x.
Then, by the assumption (H ), we have
  –p
 
(  xn )(t) – (  x)(t) ≤ |A|L   – p
(α) α–p
 –p 
|A||Q|L  –p

+ +η α–δ–p
xn – x.
(α – δ) α – δ – p

Next, we show that  is γ -contractive. For x, y ∈ Br , we get

  –p
 
(  x)(t) – (  y)(t) ≤ |A|L   – p
(α) α–p
 –p 
|A||Q|L  –p

+  + ηα–δ–p x – y.
(α – δ) α – δ – p

By the given assumption,

   –p
|A|L   – p –p |A||Q|L  –p

γ= +  + ηα–δ–p < ,
(α) α–p (α – δ) α – δ – p

it follows that  is γ -contractive.

Step .  is compact.
In Step , it has been shown that  is uniformly bounded. Now we show that  maps
bounded sets into equicontinuous sets of C([, ], R). Let t , t ∈ [, ] with t < t and
x ∈ Br . Then we obtain

  |B| t  

(  x)(t ) – (  x)(t ) ≤ (t – s)α+β– – (t – s)α+β– g s, x(s)  ds
(α + β) 

|B| t 

+ (t – s)α+β– g s, x(s)  ds
(α + β) t

  ( – s)α–δ+β– 


+ |B||Q|tα– – tα–  g s, x(s)  ds
 (α – δ + β)
 η α–δ+β–  
(η – s)

+ g s, x(s)  ds
 (α – δ + β)
 t
|B|  
≤ (t – s)α+β– – (t – s)α+β– m (s) ds
(α + β) 
 t
|B|ψ(r)
+ (t – s)α+β– m (s) ds
(α + β) t
 
 α– α–  ( – s)α–δ+β–

+ |B||Q|ψ(r) t – t  m (s) ds
 (α – δ + β)
 η 
(η – s)α–δ+β–
+ m (s) ds .
 (α – δ + β)

Obviously, the right-hand side of the above inequality tends to zero independently of x ∈ Br
as t – t → . Therefore it follows by the Arzelá-Ascoli theorem that  : C([, ], R) →
C([, ], R) is completely continuous. Thus  is compact on [, ].
Agarwal et al. Advances in Difference Equations 2013, 2013:128 Page 8 of 9
http://www.advancesindifferenceequations.com/content/2013/1/128

Step . is condensing.
Since  is continuous, γ -contraction and  is compact, therefore, by Lemma .,
: Br → Br with =  +  is a condensing map on Br .
Consequently, by Theorem ., the map has a fixed point which implies that the prob-
lem () has a solution. 

In the special case when L (t) = L, L a constant, we have the following.

Corollary . Let f , g : [, ] × R → R be continuous functions. Assume that g satisfies

(H ) and f satisfies the following condition:

(H ) |f (t, x) – f (t, y)| ≤ L|x – y| for all (t, x), (t, y) ∈ [, ] × R, L >  is a constant.

If

|A|L |A||Q|L

γ  := +  + ηα–δ < ,
(α + ) (α – δ + )

then the boundary value problem () has at least one solution.

Example . Consider a boundary value problem of integro-differential equations of frac-

tional order with nonlocal fractional boundary conditions given by
⎧
⎨–D/ x(t) = Af (t, x(t)) + BI β g(t, x(t)), t ∈ [, ],
()
⎩D/ x() = , D /
x() = , D x() – D/ x(η) = a,
/

e–t |x| t  |x|

where A = B = , β = /, η = /, f (t, x) = (+et )(+|x|)
, g(t, x) = +|x|
.

Then we have
 
  –t  
f (t, x) – f (t, y) = e  |x| – |y| 

 + et  + |x|  + |y| 
e–t |x – y|
≤
 + et

≤ L (t)|x – y|, where L (t) = e–t .

Also, for all x ∈ C and each t ∈ [, ], we have
 
  –t  
f (t, x) = e  |x|  ≤ e
–t

< m (t), where m (t) = e–t ,
 + et   + |x|   + et 

and |g(t, x)| ≤ m (t)ψ(x) with m (t) = t  (m  = (/)/ ) and ψ(x) = . Selecting
p = / and using the given data, we find that
   –p
|A|L   – p –p |A||Q|L  –p

γ := +  + ηα–δ–p
(α) α–p (α – δ) α – δ – p
 ..

As γ < , therefore, by the conclusion of Theorem ., the problem () has a solution.
Agarwal et al. Advances in Difference Equations 2013, 2013:128 Page 9 of 9
http://www.advancesindifferenceequations.com/content/2013/1/128

Competing interests
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Authors’ contributions
Each of the authors, RPA, SKN, BA and MSA, contributed to each part of this study equally and read and approved the final
version of the manuscript.

Author details
1
Department of Mathematics, Texas A&M University, Kingsville, TX 78363-8202, USA. 2 Department of Mathematics,
Faculty of Science, King Abdulaziz University, P.O. Box 80203, Jeddah, 21589, Saudi Arabia. 3 Department of Mathematics,
University of Ioannina, Ioannina, 451 10, Greece.

Acknowledgements
The authors gratefully acknowledge the referees for their constructive comments that led to the improvement of the
original manuscript. This paper was funded by King Abdulaziz University under grant No. (130-1-1433/HiCi). The authors,
therefore, acknowledge technical and financial support of KAU.

Received: 15 February 2013 Accepted: 17 April 2013 Published: 6 May 2013

References
1. Podlubny, I: Fractional Differential Equations. Academic Press, San Diego (1999)
2. Kilbas, AA, Srivastava, HM, Trujillo, JJ: Theory and Applications of Fractional Differential Equations. North-Holland
Mathematics Studies, vol. 204. Elsevier, Amsterdam (2006)
3. Agarwal, RP, Belmekki, M, Benchohra, M: A survey on semilinear differential equations and inclusions involving
Riemann-Liouville fractional derivative. Adv. Differ. Equ. 2009, Article ID 981728 (2009)
4. Kirane, M, Malik, SA: The profile of blowing-up solutions to a nonlinear system of fractional differential equations.
Nonlinear Anal. 73, 3723-3736 (2010)
5. Kirane, M, Medved, M, Tatar, N-E: Semilinear Volterra integrodifferential problems with fractional derivatives in the
nonlinearities. Abstr. Appl. Anal. 2011, Article ID 510314 (2011)
6. Baleanu, D, Mustafa, OG, Agarwal, RP: On Lp -solutions for a class of sequential fractional differential equations. Appl.
Math. Comput. 218, 2074-2081 (2011)
7. Ahmad, B, Nieto, JJ: Riemann-Liouville fractional integro-differential equations with fractional nonlocal integral
boundary conditions. Bound. Value Probl. 2011, 36 (2011)
8. Ahmad, B, Ntouyas, SK: A four-point nonlocal integral boundary value problem for fractional differential equations of
arbitrary order. Electron. J. Qual. Theory Differ. Equ. 2011, 2 (2011)
9. Sudsutad, W, Tariboon, J: Existence results of fractional integro-differential equations with m-point multi-term
fractional order integral boundary conditions. Bound. Value Probl. 2012, 94 (2012)
10. Ahmad, B, Ntouyas, SK: Nonlinear fractional differential equations and inclusions of arbitrary order and multi-strip
boundary conditions. Electron. J. Differ. Equ. 2012, 98 (2012)
11. Aghajani, A, Jalilian, Y, Trujillo, JJ: On the existence of solutions of fractional integro-differential equations. Fract. Calc.
Appl. Anal. 15(2), 44-69 (2012)
12. Carteaa, A, del-Castillo-Negrete, D: Fractional diffusion models of option prices in markets with jumps. Physica A 374,
749-763 (2007)
13. Fino, AZ, Kirane, M: Qualitative properties of solutions to a time-space fractional evolution equation. Q. Appl. Math.
70, 133-157 (2012)
14. Tao, H, Fu, M, Qian, R: Positive solutions for fractional differential equations from real estate asset securitization via
new fixed point theorem. Abstr. Appl. Anal. 2012, Article ID 842358 (2012)
15. Labidi, S, Tatar, N-E: Unboundedness for the Euler-Bernoulli beam equation with fractional boundary dissipation.
Appl. Math. Comput. 161, 697-706 (2005)
16. Labidi, S, Tatar, N-E: Breakdown for a Kirchhoff type beam with a fractional boundary feedback. J. Dyn. Control Syst.
14, 71-94 (2008)
17. Granas, A, Dugundji, J: Fixed Point Theory. Springer, New York (2003)
18. Zeidler, E: Nonlinear Functional Analysis and Its Application: Fixed Point-Theorems, vol. 1. Springer, New York (1986)
19. Sadovskii, BN: On a fixed point principle. Funct. Anal. Appl. 1, 74-76 (1967)

doi:10.1186/1687-1847-2013-128
Cite this article as: Agarwal et al.: Existence of solutions for integro-differential equations of fractional order with
nonlocal three-point fractional boundary conditions. Advances in Difference Equations 2013 2013:128.