Given a metric space $X$ we consider a general class of functionals which measure the cost of a path in $X$ joining two given points $x_0$ and $x_1$, providing abstract existence results for optimal paths. The results are then applied to the case when $X$ is aWasserstein space of probabilities on a given set $\Omega$ and the cost of a path depends on the value of classical functionals over measures. Conditions for linking arbitrary extremal measures ${\mu }_0$ and ${\mu }_1$ by means of finite cost paths are given.

We investigate Prékopa-Leindler type inequalities on a Riemannian manifold $M$ equipped with a measure with density $e^{-V}$ where the potential $V$ and the Ricci curvature satisfy ${Hess}_{x}V+{Ric}_x\ge \lambda I$ for all $x\in M$, with some $\lambda \in ℝ$. As in our earlier work [14], the argument uses optimal mass transport on $M$, but here, with a special emphasis on its connection with Jacobi fields. A key role will be played by the differential equation satisfied by the determinant of a matrix of Jacobi fields. We also present applications of the method...

On donne un développement asymptotique du profil iso pé ri mé tri que de ${ℝ}^n$ muni d'une métrique riemannienne périodique, et des conséquences pour le problème de la forme d'équilibre des cristaux.

Fix two points $x,\overline{x}\in S^2$ and two directions (without orientation) $\eta ,\overline{\eta }$ of the velocities in these points. In this paper we are interested to the problem of minimizing the cost $J\left[\gamma \right]={\int }_0^T\left({}_{\gamma \left(t\right)}(\dot{\gamma }\left(t\right),\dot{\gamma }\left(t\right))+K_{\gamma \left(t\right)}^2{}_{\gamma \left(t\right)}(\dot{\gamma }\left(t\right),\dot{\gamma }\left(t\right))\right)\mathrm{d}t$ along all smooth curves starting from x with direction η and ending in $\overline{x}$ with direction $\overline{\eta }$. Here g is the standard Riemannian metric on S2 and $K_{\gamma }$ is the corresponding geodesic curvature. The interest of this problem comes from mechanics and geometry of vision. It can be formulated as a sub-Riemannian problem on the lens space L(4,1). We...