Functional and variational aspects of nonlocal operators associated with linear PDEs

Abstract

We introduce a general difference quotient representation for non-local operators associated with a first-order linear operator. We establish new local to non-local estimates and strong localization principles in various spaces of functions, measures and distributions, which fully generalize those known for gradients. Under suitable assumptions, we also establish the invariance of quasiconvexity within the proposed local-nonlocal setting. Applications to the fine properties of $\mathcal{A}$-gradient measures are further discussed.

48 pages (corrected a mistake concerning the functional kernel equivalence between the local and nonlocal operators, added a few sections and updated the bibliography)