On Sobolev regularity of mass transport and transportation inequalities

Alexander V. Kolesnikov

Published 2010-07-07, updated 2011-03-08Version 3

We study Sobolev a priori estimates for the optimal transportation $T = \nabla \Phi$ between probability measures $\mu=e^{-V} \ dx$ and $\nu=e^{-W} \ dx$ on $\R^d$. Assuming uniform convexity of the potential $W$ we show that $\int \| D^2 \Phi\|^2_{HS} \ d\mu$, where $\|\cdot\|_{HS}$ is the Hilbert-Schmidt norm, is controlled by the Fisher information of $\mu$. In addition, we prove similar estimate for the $L^p(\mu)$-norms of $\|D^2 \Phi\|$ and obtain some $L^p$-generalizations of the well-known Caffarelli contraction theorem. We establish a connection of our results with the Talagrand transportation inequality. We also prove a corresponding dimension-free version for the relative Fisher information with respect to a Gaussian measure.