No Arabic abstract
The geometric approach to optimal transport and information theory has triggered the interpretation of probability densities as an infinite-dimensional Riemannian manifold. The most studied Riemannian structures are Ottos metric, yielding the $L^2$-Wasserstein distance of optimal mass transport, and the Fisher--Rao metric, predominant in the theory of information geometry. On the space of smooth probability densities, none of these Riemannian metrics are geodesically complete---a property desirable for example in imaging applications. That is, the existence interval for solutions to the geodesic flow equations cannot be extended to the whole real line. Here we study a class of Hamilton--Jacobi-like partial differential equations arising as geodesic flow equations for higher-order Sobolev type metrics on the space of smooth probability densities. We give order conditions for global existence and uniqueness, thereby providing geodesic completeness. The system we study is an interesting example of a flow equation with loss of derivatives, which is well-posed in the smooth category, yet non-parabolic and fully non-linear. On a more general note, the paper establishes a link between geometric analysis on the space of probability densities and analysis of Euler-Arnold equations in topological hydrodynamics.
For free boundary problems on Euclidean spaces, the monotonicity formulas of Alt-Caffarelli-Friedman and Caffarelli-Jerison-Kenig are cornerstones for the regularity theory as well as the existence theory. In this article we establish the analogs of these results for the Laplace-Beltrami operator on Riemannian manifolds. As an application we show that our monotonicity theorems can be employed to prove the Lipschitz continuity for the solutions of a general class of two-phase free boundary problems on Riemannian manifolds.
In this paper we provide some local and global splitting results on complete Riemannian manifolds with nonnegative Ricci curvature. We achieve the splitting through the analysis of some pointwise inequalities of Modica type which hold true for every bounded solution to a semilinear Poisson equation. More precisely, we prove that the existence of a nonconstant bounded solution $u$ for which one of the previous inequalities becomes an equality at some point leads to the splitting results as well as to a classification of such a solution $u$.
We study Riemannian metrics on Lie groupoids in the relative setting. We show that any split fibration between proper groupoids can be made Riemannian, and we use these metrics to linearize proper groupoid fibrations. As an application, we derive rigidity theorems for Lie groupoids, which unify, simplify and improve similar results for classic geometries. Then we establish the Morita invariance for our metrics, introduce a notion for metrics on stacks, and use them to construct stacky tubular neighborhoods and to prove a stacky Ehresmann theorem.
Normal geodesic flows flows of Carnot-Caratheodory are discussed from the point of view of the theory of Hamiltonian systems. The geodesic flows corresponding to left-invariant metrics and left- and -right-invariant rank 2 distributions on the three-dimensional Heisenberg group are analysed as integrable systems. The flows corresponding to left-invariant metrics and left-invariant distributions on Lie groups are reduced to Euler equations on Lie groups. Relation of these constructions to problems of analytical mechanics is discussed.
We prove an existence result for the Poisson equation on non-compact Riemannian manifolds satisfying weighted Poincare inequalities outside compact sets. Our result applies to a large class of manifolds including, for instance, all non-parabolic manifolds with minimal positive Greens function vanishing at infinity. On the source function we assume a sharp pointwise decay depending on the weight appearing in the Poincare inequality and on the behavior of the Ricci curvature at infinity. We do not require any curvature or spectral assumptions on the manifold.