A finite difference method for fractional partial differential equation

An implicit unconditional stable difference scheme is presented for a kind of linear space–time fractional convection–diffusion equation. The equation is obtained from the classical integer order convection–diffusion equations with fractional order derivatives for both space and time. First-order consistency, unconditional stability, and first-order convergence of the method are proven using a novel shifted version of the classical Grünwald finite difference approximation for the fractional derivatives. A numerical example with known exact solution is also presented, and the behavior of the error is examined to verify the order of convergence.