We study one-sided nonlocal equations of the form
on the real line. Notice that to compute this nonlocal operator of order
0<α<1 at a point
a056582f96dfd44ab7c779d2ddfdf3" title="Click to view the MathML source">x0 we need to know the values of
u(x) to the right of
a056582f96dfd44ab7c779d2ddfdf3" title="Click to view the MathML source">x0, that is, for
x≥x0. 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.