Fourier-Gegenbauer Pseudospectral Method for Solving Time-Dependent One-Dimensional Fractional Partial Differential Equations with Variable Coefficients and Periodic Solutions

Abstract: In this paper, we present a novel pseudospectral (PS) method for solving a new class of initial-value problems (IVPs) of time-dependent one-dimensional fractional partial differential equations (FPDEs) with variable coefficients and periodic solutions. A main ingredient of our work is the use of the recently developed periodic RL/Caputo fractional derivative (FD) operators with sliding positive fixed memory length of Bourafa et al. [1] or their reduced forms obtained by Elgindy [2] as the natural FD operators to accurately model FPDEs with periodic solutions. The proposed method converts the IVP into a well-conditioned linear system of equations using the PS method based on Fourier collocations and Gegenbauer quadratures. The reduced linear system has a simple special structure and can be solved accurately and rapidly by using standard linear system solvers. A rigorous study of the computational storage requirements as well as the error and convergence of the proposed method is presented. The idea and results presented in this paper are expected to be useful in the future to address more general problems involving FPDEs with periodic solutions.