English

A variational proof of partial regularity for optimal transportation maps

Analysis of PDEs 2017-10-25 v2

Abstract

We provide a new proof of the known partial regularity result for the optimal transportation map (Brenier map) between two sets. Contrary to the existing regularity theory for the Monge-Amp{\`e}re equation, which is based on the maximum principle, our approach is purely variational. By constructing a competitor on the level of the Eulerian (Benamou-Brenier) formulation, we show that locally, the velocity is close to the gradient of a harmonic function provided the transportation cost is small. We then translate back to the Lagrangian description and perform a Campanato iteration to obtain an ϵ\epsilon-regularity result.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1704.05339,
  title  = {A variational proof of partial regularity for optimal transportation maps},
  author = {Michael Goldman and F Otto},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1704.05339},
  year   = {2017}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-22T19:20:07.772Z