A characterization of BV and Sobolev functions via nonlocal functionals in metric spaces

Abstract: We study a characterization of BV and Sobolev functions via nonlocal functionals in metric spaces equipped with a doubling measure and supporting a Poincar\'e inequality. Compared with previous works, we consider more general functionals. We also give a counterexample in the case $p=1$ demonstrating that unlike in Euclidean spaces, in metric measure spaces the limit of the nonlocal functions is only comparable, not necessarily equal, to the variation measure $| Df|(\Omega)$.