The first derivative of a particle coordinate means its velocity, the second means its acceleration, but what does a fractional order derivative mean? Where does it come from, how does it work, where does it lead to? The two-volume book written on high didactic level answers these questions. Fractional Derivatives for Physicists and Engineers- The first volume contains a clear introduction into such a modern branch of analysis as the fractional calculus. The second develops a wide panorama of applications of the fractional calculus to various physical problems. This book recovers new perspectives in front of the reader dealing with turbulence and semiconductors, plasma and thermodynamics, mechanics and quantum optics, nanophysics and astrophysics. The book is addressed to students, engineers and physicists, specialists in theory of probability and statistics, in mathematical modeling and numerical simulations, to everybody who doesn't wish to stay apart from the new mathematical methods becoming more and more popular. Prof. Vladimir V. UCHAIKIN is a known Russian scientist and pedagogue, a Honored Worker of Russian High School, a member of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences. He is the author of about three hundreds articles and more than a dozen books (mostly in Russian) in Cosmic ray physics, Mathematical physics, Levy stable statistics, Monte Carlo methods with applications to anomalous processes in complex systems of various levels: from quantum dots to the Milky Way galaxy.

This book is first of its kind describing a new direction in modeling processes taking place in interplanetary and interstellar space (magnetic fields, plasma, cosmic rays, etc.). This method is based on a special mathematical analysis - fractional calculus. The reader will find in this book clear physical explanation of the fractional approach and will become familiar with basic rules in this calculus and main results obtained in frame of this approach. In spite of its profound subject, the book is not overloaded by mathematical details. It contains many illustrations, rich citation and remains accessible to a wide circle of physicists.This book is addressed to graduate and postgraduate students, young and mature researchers specializing in applications of fractional calculus, astrophysics, solar-terrestrial science and physics of cosmic rays.