How to impose physically coherent initial conditions to a fractional system

Abstract In this paper, it is shown that neither Riemann–Liouville nor Caputo definitions for fractional differentiation can be used to take into account initial conditions in a convenient way from a physical point of view. This demonstration is done on a counter-example. Then the paper proposes a representation for fractional order systems that lead to a physically coherent initialization for the considered systems. This representation involves a classical linear integer system and a system described by a parabolic equation. It is thus also shown that fractional order systems are halfway between these two classes of systems, and are particularly suited for diffusion phenomena modelling.