Optimal pricing for optimal transport

Suppose that $c(x,y)$ is the cost of transporting a unit of mass from $x\in X$ to $y\in Y$ and suppose that a mass distribution $\mu$ on $X$ is transported optimally (so that the total cost of transportation is minimal) to the mass distribution $\nu$ on $Y$. Then, roughly speaking, the Kantorovich duality theorem asserts that there is a price $f(x)$ for a unit of mass sold (say by the producer to the distributor) at $x$ and a price $g(y)$ for a unit of mass sold (say by the distributor to the end consumer) at $y$ such that for any $x\in X$ and $y\in Y$, the price difference $g(y)-f(x)$ is not greater than the cost of transportation $c(x,y)$ and such that there is equality $g(y)-f(x)=c(x,y)$ if indeed a nonzero mass was transported (via the optimal transportation plan) from $x$ to $y$. We consider the following optimal pricing problem: suppose that a new pricing policy is to be determined while keeping a part of the optimal transportation plan fixed and, in addition, some prices at the sources of this part are also kept fixed. From the producers' side, what would then be the highest compatible pricing policy possible? From the consumers' side, what would then be the lowest compatible pricing policy possible? In the framework of $c$-convexity theory, we have recently introduced and studied optimal $c$-convex $c$-antiderivatives and explicit constructions of these optimizers were presented. In the present paper we employ optimal $c$-convex $c$-antiderivatives and conclude that these are natural solutions to the optimal pricing problems mentioned above. This type of problems drew attention in the past and existence results were previously established in the case where $X=Y=R^n$ under various specifications. We solve the above problem for general spaces $X,Y$ and real-valued, lower semicontinuous cost functions $c$

The asymptotic behavior of a class of nonlinear semigroups in Hadamard spaces

We study a nonlinear semigroup associated to a nonexpansive mapping on a Hadamard space and establish its weak convergence to a fixed point. A discrete-time counterpart of such a semigroup, the proximal point algorithm, turns out to have the same asymptotic behavior. This complements several results in the literature -- both classical and more recent ones. As an application, we obtain a new approach to heat flows in singular spaces for discrete, as well as continuous times.Comment: Accepted in JFPT

A von Neumann Alternating Method for Finding Common Solutions to Variational Inequalities

Modifying von Neumann's alternating projections algorithm, we obtain an alternating method for solving the recently introduced Common Solutions to Variational Inequalities Problem (CSVIP). For simplicity, we mainly confine our attention to the two-set CSVIP, which entails finding common solutions to two unrelated variational inequalities in Hilbert space.Comment: Nonlinear Analysis Series A: Theory, Methods & Applications, accepted for publicatio