On the convexity of the entropy along entropic interpolations

Convexity properties of the entropy along displacement interpolations are crucial in the Lott-Sturm-Villani theory of lower bounded curvature of geodesic measure spaces. As discrete spaces fail to be geodesic, an alternate analogous theory is necessary in the discrete setting. Replacing displacement interpolations by entropic ones allows for developing a rigorous calculus, in contrast with Otto's informal calculus. When the underlying state space is a Riemannian manifold, we show that the first and second derivatives of the entropy as a function of time along entropic interpolations are expressed in terms of the standard Bakry-\'Emery operators $\Gamma$ and $\Gamma_2$. On the other hand, in the discrete setting new operators appear. Our approach is probabilistic; it relies on the Markov property and time reversal. We illustrate these calculations by means of Brownian diffusions on manifolds and random walks on graphs. We also give a new unified proof, covering both the manifold and graph cases, of a logarithmic Sobolev inequality in connection with convergence to equilibrium

Girsanov theory under a finite entropy condition

This paper is about Girsanov's theory. It (almost) doesn't contain new results but it is based on a simplified new approach which takes advantage of the (weak) extra requirement that some relative entropy is finite. Under this assumption, we present and prove all the standard results pertaining to the absolute continuity of two continuous-time processes with or without jumps. We have tried to give as much as possible a self-contained presentation. The main advantage of the finite entropy strategy is that it allows us to replace martingale representation results by the simpler Riesz representations of the dual of a Hilbert space (in the continuous case) or of an Orlicz function space (in the jump case)

A large deviation approach to optimal transport

A probabilistic method for solving the Monge-Kantorovich mass transport problem on $R^d$ is introduced. A system of empirical measures of independent particles is built in such a way that it obeys a doubly indexed large deviation principle with an optimal transport cost as its rate function. As a consequence, new approximation results for the optimal cost function and the optimal transport plans are derived. They follow from the Gamma-convergence of a sequence of normalized relative entropies toward the optimal transport cost. A wide class of cost functions including the standard power cost functions $|x-y|^p$ enter this framework

A survey of the Schr\"odinger problem and some of its connections with optimal transport

This article is aimed at presenting the Schr\"odinger problem and some of its connections with optimal transport. We hope that it can be used as a basic user's guide to Schr\"odinger problem. We also give a survey of the related literature. In addition, some new results are proved.Comment: To appear in Discrete \& Continuous Dynamical Systems - Series A. Special issue on optimal transpor

Characterization of the optimal plans for the Monge-Kantorovich transport problem

We present a general method, based on conjugate duality, for solving a convex minimization problem without assuming unnecessary topological restrictions on the constraint set. It leads to dual equalities and characterizations of the minimizers without constraint qualification. As an example of application, the Monge-Kantorovich optimal transport problem is solved in great detail. In particular, the optimal transport plans are characterized without restriction. This characterization improves the already existing literature on the subject.Comment: 39 page