Optimal Transport in One Dimension
In this article, we briefly explore the optimal transport problem on the real line along with some examples.
Contents
Linear Cost Example
For this example, consider the cost function along with a given linear map . Moreover, if let Failed to parse (MathML with SVG or PNG fallback (recommended for modern browsers and accessibility tools): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \gamma } be any transport plan, then by direct computation we see that
which suggests that this result only depends on the marginals of (wherein and Failed to parse (MathML with SVG or PNG fallback (recommended for modern browsers and accessibility tools): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \nu } are compactly supported probability measures). In fact, in such cases, every transport plan/map is optimal.
Distance Cost Example
Consider the cost function along with probability measures (on Failed to parse (MathML with SVG or PNG fallback (recommended for modern browsers and accessibility tools): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \mathbb{R} } ) and . Then, for any we see that , which then immediately puts us back in the linear cost position, so any transport map/plan is also optimal for such costs.
Book Shifting Example
Consider the cost function along with Failed to parse (MathML with SVG or PNG fallback (recommended for modern browsers and accessibility tools): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \mu = \frac{1}{2} \lambda_{[0,2]} } and (where is the one-dimensional Lebesgue measure). A (monotone) transport plan that rearranges to look like is given by Failed to parse (MathML with SVG or PNG fallback (recommended for modern browsers and accessibility tools): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle T_0(x) = x+1 } and its corresponding cost is
.
Furthermore, notice that the piecewise map given by (for ) and (for ) satisfies , i.e. is a transport map from to Failed to parse (MathML with SVG or PNG fallback (recommended for modern browsers and accessibility tools): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \nu } ; moreover, the corresponding cost is
and so we conclude that is indeed optimal as well.
Quadratic Cost
Theorem: Let be probability measures on Failed to parse (MathML with SVG or PNG fallback (recommended for modern browsers and accessibility tools): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \mathbb{R}} with cumulative distribution functions (CDFs) and , respectively. Also, let Failed to parse (MathML with SVG or PNG fallback (recommended for modern browsers and accessibility tools): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \pi } be the probability measure on with the CDF Failed to parse (MathML with SVG or PNG fallback (recommended for modern browsers and accessibility tools): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle H(x,y) = \min (F(x), G(y))} . Then, and is optimal (in the Kantorovich problem setting) between and for the (quadratic) cost function , and the corresponding cost is
where and are the pseudo-inverses of the respective CDFs.
Ideas and Remarks for the Proof
Note the proof from Cedric-Villani gives this result in arbitrary dimensions. Below is a rough outline of proof, and the full details can be found in "Topics in Optimal Transportation" (Villani, cite later). Moreover, the measure Failed to parse (MathML with SVG or PNG fallback (recommended for modern browsers and accessibility tools): Invalid response ("Math extension cannot connect to Restbase.") from server "https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/":): {\displaystyle \pi } constructed in the theorem indeed is optimal provided that the cost function is of the form where is a convex, nonnegative symmetric function on .
One of the first major steps in proving this theorem is showing that by considering specific cases. Upon showing this, we may conclude that is supported in a monotone subset of and hence also supported in the sub-differential of some lower semi-continuous convex function. From here, we make use of the Knott-Smith optimality criterion (Villani pg 66) which establishes that is an optimal transference plan. Then, upon showing that , we see that for any nonnegative, measurable function on
.
This then immediately yields the cost and completes the proof.