DIFFUSION BY OPTIMAL TRANSPORT IN HEISENBERG GROUPS NICOLAS JUILLET Abstract. We prove that the hypoelliptic diffusion of the Heisenberg group Hn describes, in the space of probability measures over Hn, a curve driven by the gradient flow of the Boltzmann entropy Ent, in the sense of optimal transport. We prove that conversely any gradient flow curve of Ent satisfy the hypoelliptic heat equation. This occurs in the subRiemannian Hn, which is not a space with a lower Ricci curvature bound in the metric sense of Lott–Villani and Sturm. Introduction For some years there has been a new alternative representation for the evolution of probability densities. Beside the probabilistic diffusion point of view and the Dirichlet energy approach, one may now also consider this evolution as a curve in terms of optimal transport. The more representative class of examples is certainly given by the heat equation and its transformations. In different papers, covering different frameworks (see for instance [2, 11, 12, 20, 21, 26, 32, 35, 36, 41, 46]) it has been proven that curves of probability measures (µt)t≥0 with a density satisfying the adequate heat equation are exactly the curves with a speed equal to the opposite of the gradient of the relative Boltzmann entropy Ent, in the sense of optimal transport. Hence, we have the formal paradigm “µ˙t = ??Ent(µt)?? ?˙t = ∆?t”(1) where ?t on the right-hand side denotes the density of µt.
- continuous curves
- over very
- lebesgue measure
- ent has
- heisenberg group
- finite slope
- called hormander