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It is a classical result of Sobolev spaces that any $H^1$ function has a well-defined $H^{1/2}$ trace on the boundary of a sufficient regular domain. In this work, we present stronger and more general versions of such a trace theorem in a new nonlocal function space $\cS(\Omega)$ satisfying $H^1(\Omega)\subset \cS(\Omega)\subset L^2(\Omega)$. The new space $\cS(\Omega)$ is associated with a nonlocal norm characterized by a nonlocal interaction kernel that is defined heterogeneously with a special localization feature on the boundary. Through the heterogeneous localization, we are able to show that the $H^{1/2}$ norm of the trace on the boundary can be controlled by the nonlocal norm that are weaker than the classical $H^1$ norm. In fact, the trace theorems can be essentially shown without imposing any extra regularity of the function in the interior of the domain other than being square integrable. Implications of the new trace theorems to the coupling of local and nonlocal equations and possible further generalizations are also discussed.

It is a classical result of Sobolev spaces that any $H^1$ function has a well-defined $H^{1/2}$ trace on the boundary of a sufficient regular domain. We discuss its recent extensions given in \cite{TiDu16} in some heterogeneously localized nonlocal function spaces. The new trace theorems are stronger and more general than the classical result. They can be established essentially for all functions having only square integrability away from the boundary or in any compact subset of interior domain. Yet, the heterogeneous localization offers the necessary regularity precisely at the boundary to have well-defined traces. A consequence is that we may study associated Dirichlet type boundary value problems, as well as the coupling of local and nonlocal equations through co-dimension-1 interfaces. %Their derivations not only involve various extensions of classical inequalities but also %require new techniques absent from traditional approaches.

A recently developed nonlocal vector calculus is exploited to provide a variational analysis for a general class of nonlocal diffusion problems described by a linear integral equation on bounded domains in Rn. The nonlocal vector calculus also enables striking analogies to be drawn between the nonlocal model and classical models for diffusion, including a notion of nonlocal flux. The ubiquity of the nonlocal operator in applications is illustrated by a number of examples ranging from continuum mechanics to graph theory. In particular, it is shown that fractional Laplacian and fractional derivative models for anomalous diffusion are special cases of the nonlocal model for diffusion that we consider. The numerous applications elucidate different interpretations of the operator and the associated governing equations. For example, a probabilistic perspective explains that the nonlocal spatial operator appearing in our model corresponds to the infinitesimal generator for a symmetric jump process. Sufficient conditions on the kernel of the nonlocal operator and the notion of volume constraints are shown to lead to a well-posed problem. Volume constraints are a proxy for boundary conditions that may not be defined for a given kernel. In particular, we demonstrate for a general class of kernels that the nonlocal operator is a mapping between a volume constrained subspace of a fractional Sobolev subspace and its dual. We also demonstrate for other particular kernels that the inverse of the operator does not smooth but does correspond to diffusion. The impact of our results is that both a continuum analysis and a numerical method for the modeling of anomalous diffusion on bounded domains in Rn are provided. The analytical framework allows us to consider finite-dimensional approximations using discontinuous and continuous Galerkin methods, both of which are conforming for the nonlocal diffusion equation we consider; error and condition number estimates are derived.