Optimal transport maps, majorization, and log-subharmonic measures

TL;DR

This paper extends contraction bounds from optimal transport maps between log-convex and log-concave measures to the trace of their derivatives for log-subharmonic measures, with implications for majorization, growth estimates, and Coulomb gases.

Contribution

It establishes a trace bound for optimal transport maps involving log-subharmonic measures, generalizing Caffarelli's contraction theorem and exploring its consequences.

Findings

Trace bounds lead to volume-contracting transport maps.

Majorization is monotone along Wasserstein geodesics.

Results apply to growth estimates and Coulomb gases.

Abstract

Caffarelli's contraction theorem bounds the derivative of the optimal transport map between a log-convex measure and a strongly log-concave measure. We show that an analogous phenomenon holds on the level of the trace: The trace of the derivative of the optimal transport map between a log-subharmonic measure and a strongly log-concave measure is bounded. We show that this trace bound has a number of consequences pertaining to volume-contracting transport maps, majorization and its monotonicity along Wasserstein geodesics, growth estimates of log-subharmonic functions, the Wehrl conjecture for Glauber states, and two-dimensional Coulomb gases. We also discuss volume-contraction properties for the Kim-Milman transport map