Resumen: We study the generalization of m-isometries and m-contractions (for positive integers m) to what we call a-isometries and a-contractions for positive real numbers a. We show that an operator satisfying a certain inequality in hereditary form is similar to a-contraction. This improvement of [9, Theorem I] is based on some Banach algebras techniques. We show that our operator classes are closely connected with fractional finite differences. Using this techniques, we get that, given 0 < b< a, an a-contraction need not to be a b-contraction in general, but is a b-contraction if a natural additional requirement is imposed. Idioma: Inglés DOI: 10.1007/s43037-020-00114-6 Año: 2021 Publicado en: Banach Journal of Mathematical Analysis 15, 2 (2021), 34 [29 pp] ISSN: 2662-2033 Factor impacto JCR: 1.197 (2021) Categ. JCR: MATHEMATICS rank: 114 / 333 = 0.342 (2021) - Q2 - T2 Categ. JCR: MATHEMATICS, APPLIED rank: 166 / 267 = 0.622 (2021) - Q3 - T2 Factor impacto CITESCORE: 1.6 - Mathematics (Q3)