Paper detail

From optimal transportation to optimal teleportation

The object of this paper is to study estimates of $ε^{-q}W_p(μ+εν, μ)$ for small $ε>0$. Here $W_p$ is the Wasserstein metric on positive measures, $p>1$, $μ$ is a probability measure and $ν$ a signed, neutral measure ($\int dν=0$). In [W1] we proved uniform (in $ε$) estimates for $q=1$ provided $\int ϕdν$ can be controlled in terms of the $\int|\nablaϕ|^{p/(p-1)}dμ$, for any smooth function $ϕ$. In this paper we extend the results to the case where such a control fails. This is the case where if, e.g. $μ$ has a disconnected support, or if the dimension of $μ$ , $d$ (to be defined) is larger or equal $p/(p-1)$. In the later case we get such an estimate provided $1/p+1/d\not=1$ for $q=\min(1, 1/p+1/d)$. If $1/p+1/d=1$ we get a log-Lipschitz estimate. As an application we obtain Hölder estimates in $W_p$ for curves of probability measures which are absolutely continuous in the total variation norm . In case the support of $μ$ is disconnected (corresponding to $d=\infty$) we obtain sharp estimates for $q=1/p$ ("optimal teleportation"): $$ \lim_{ε\rightarrow 0}ε^{-1/p}W_p(μ, μ+εν) = \|ν\|_μ$$ where $\|ν\|_μ$ is expressed in terms of optimal transport on a metric graph, determined only by the relative distances between the connected components of the support of $μ$, and the weights of the measure $ν$ in each connected component of this support.