Maximum principles, extension problem and inversion for nonlocal one-sided equations

Abstract: We study one-sided nonlocal equations of the form $$\int_{x_0}^\infty\frac{u(x)-u(x_0)}{(x-x_0)^{1+\alpha}} dx=f(x_0),$$ on the real line. Notice that to compute this nonlocal operator of order $0<\alpha<1$ at a point $x_0$ we need to know the values of $u(x)$ to the right of $x_0$, that is, for $x\geq x_0$. We show that the operator above corresponds to a fractional power of a one-sided first order derivative. Maximum principles and a characterization with an extension problem in the spirit of Caffarelli--Silvestre and Stinga--Torrea are proved. It is also shown that these fractional equations can be solved in the general setting of weighted one-sided spaces. In this regard we present suitable inversion results. Along the way we are able to unify and clarify several notions of fractional derivatives found in the literature.