Abstract: | We study a class of nonlocal operators that may be seen as high order generalizations of the well known nonlocal diffusion operators. We present properties of the associated nonlocal functionals and nonlocal function spaces including nonlocal versions of Sobolev inequalities such as the nonlocal Poincaré and nonlocal Gagliardo–Nirenberg inequalities. Nonlocal characterizations of high order Sobolev spaces in the spirit of Bourgain–Brezis–Mironescu are provided. Applications of nonlocal calculus of variations to the well-posedness of linear nonlocal models of elastic beams and plates are also considered. |