Fractional Vector Calculus and the Fractional Maxwell's Equations

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Covi, Giovanni, Wu, Ruirui
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866917462516170752
author Covi, Giovanni
Wu, Ruirui
author_facet Covi, Giovanni
Wu, Ruirui
contents We consider a fractional variant of Maxwell's equations, where the electric and magnetic fields are modeled as two-point fields. To formulate the system, we introduce a fractional curl operator that is compatible with the fractional divergence operator, ensuring the divergence-free condition. A key ingredient is a projection map $Π$ that reduces two-point fields to one-point fields. We also define a new fractional Sobolev space whose elements enjoy a fractional Helmholtz decomposition and observe that the projection $Π$ is a bijection in this space, which allows us to reformulate the problem entirely in terms of one-point fields. We then prove the well-posedness of the equations in one-point fields in weighted fractional Sobolev spaces, and deduce a corresponding well-posedness result for the two-points fractional Maxwell system. This constitutes a first necessary step towards the resolution of a scattering inverse problem for the fractional Maxwell's equations, which will be the topic of future work.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2605_04241
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Fractional Vector Calculus and the Fractional Maxwell's Equations
Covi, Giovanni
Wu, Ruirui
Analysis of PDEs
We consider a fractional variant of Maxwell's equations, where the electric and magnetic fields are modeled as two-point fields. To formulate the system, we introduce a fractional curl operator that is compatible with the fractional divergence operator, ensuring the divergence-free condition. A key ingredient is a projection map $Π$ that reduces two-point fields to one-point fields. We also define a new fractional Sobolev space whose elements enjoy a fractional Helmholtz decomposition and observe that the projection $Π$ is a bijection in this space, which allows us to reformulate the problem entirely in terms of one-point fields. We then prove the well-posedness of the equations in one-point fields in weighted fractional Sobolev spaces, and deduce a corresponding well-posedness result for the two-points fractional Maxwell system. This constitutes a first necessary step towards the resolution of a scattering inverse problem for the fractional Maxwell's equations, which will be the topic of future work.
title Fractional Vector Calculus and the Fractional Maxwell's Equations
topic Analysis of PDEs
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.04241