Computational Methods in the Fractional Calculus of Variations

This book fills a gap in the literature by introducing numerical techniques to solve problems of the Fractional Calculus of Variations (FCV). In most cases, finding the analytic solution to such problems is extremely difficult or even impossible, and numerical methods need to be used. After some preliminaries on the subject, different techniques are presented in detail with numerous examples to help the reader to better understand the methods.The techniques presented may be used not only to deal with FCV problems but also in other different contexts of fractional calculus, such as fractional differential equations and fractional optimal control.The authors are well-known researchers in the area of FCV and the book contains some of their recent results, bringing together material published in different specialized international journals. It is suitable as an advanced book for graduate students in mathematics, physics and engineering, as well as for researchers interested in fractional calculus.