Principal eigenvalue, maximum principles and linear stability for nonlocal diffusion equations in metric measure spaces (Q2141056)

The author studies principal eigenvalues and maximum principles for stationary nonlocal operators in spaces of integrable functions defined on general metric measure spaces under minimal assumptions on the kernels. Several characterizations of the principal eigenvalue are given as well as several conditions guaranteeing existence. A characterization of the (strong) maximum principle is also given. For evolution problems the strong maximum principle is proved. The stability in terms of the sign of the principal eigenvalue is characterized. All previously known results, obtained for smooth open sets in Euclidean space under continuity assumptions on the data, are recovered, extended and improved.