A canonical decomposition of $H$-self-similar Lévy symmetric $\alpha$-stable processes is presented. The resulting components completely described by both deterministic kernels and the corresponding stochastic integral with respect to the Lévy symmetric $\alpha$-stable motion are shown to be related to the dissipative and conservative parts of the dynamics. This result provides stochastic analysis tools for study the anomalous diffusion phenomena in the Langevin equation framework. For example, a simple computer test for testing the origins of self-similarity is implemented for four real empirical time series recorded from different physical systems: an ionic current flow through a single channel in a biological membrane, an energy of solar flares, a seismic electric signal recorded during seismic Earth activity, and foreign exchange rate daily returns.

• Received 5 November 2003

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.71.016113