In this paper, we prove the existence of an initial trace T u of any positive
solution u of the semilinear fractional diffusion equation (H) ∂ t u +
(–Δ) α u + f (t, x, u) = 0 in R * + × R N , where N ≥
1 where the operator (–Δ) α with α ∈ (0, 1) is the
fractional Laplacian and f : R + × R N × R + → R is a
Caratheodory function satisfying f (t, x, u)u ≥ 0 for all (t, x, u) ∈ R
- × R N × R +. We define the regular set of the trace T u as an
open subset of R u ⊂ R N carrying a nonnegative Radon measive ν u
such that lim t→0 Ru u(t, x)ζ(x)dx = Ru ζdν
∀ζ ∈ C 2 0 (R u), and the singular set S u = R N \ R u as the
set points a such that lim sup t→0 Bρ(a) u(t, x)dx = ∞
∀ρ > 0. We study the reverse problem of constructing a
positive solution to (H) with a given initial trace (S, ν) where S
⊂ R N is a closed set and ν is a positive Radon measure on R = R N
\ S and develop the case f (t, x, u) = t β u p where β > --1
and p > 1.