A Note on a Fractional Extension of the Lotka–Volterra Model Using the Rabotnov Exponential Kernel

Abstract

In this article, we study the fractional form of a well-known dynamical system from mathematical biology, namely, the Lotka–Volterra model. This mathematical model describes the dynamics of a predator and prey, and we consider here the fractional form using the Rabotnov fractional-exponential (RFE) kernel. In this work, we derive an approximate formula of the fractional derivative of a power function ζp in terms of the RFE kernel. Next, by using the spectral collocation method (SCM) based on the shifted Vieta–Lucas polynomials (VLPs), the fractional differential system is reduced to a set of algebraic equations. We provide a theoretical convergence analysis for the numerical approach, and the accuracy is verified by evaluating the residual error function through some concrete examples. The results are then contrasted with those derived using the fourth-order Runge-Kutta (RK4) method.