Optimal transport, gradient estimates, and pathwise Brownian coupling on spaces with variable Ricci bounds

Given a metric measure space $(X,\mathsf{d},\mathfrak{m})$ and a lower semicontinuous, lower bounded function $k\colon X\to\mathbb{R}$, we prove the equivalence of the synthetic approaches to Ricci curvature at $x\in X$ being bounded from below by $k(x)$ in terms of $\bullet$ the Bakry-\'Emery estimate $\Delta\Gamma(f)/2 - \Gamma(f,\Delta f) \geq k\,\Gamma(f)$ in an appropriate weak formulation, and $\bullet$ the curvature-dimension condition $\mathrm{CD}(k,\infty)$ in the sense Lott-Sturm-Villani with variable $k$. Moreover, for all $p\in(1,\infty)$, these properties hold if and only if the perturbed $p$-transport cost \begin{equation*} W_p^{\underline{k}}(\mu_1,\mu_2,t):=\inf_{(\mathsf{b}^1,\mathsf{b}^2)} \mathbb{E}\Big[\mathrm{e}^{\int_0^{2t} p \underline{k}\left(\mathsf{b}^1_{r}, \mathsf{b}^2_{r}\right)/2\,\mathrm{d} r} \mathsf{d}^p\!\left(\mathsf{b}^1_{2t},\mathsf{b}^2_{2t} \right)\!\Big]^{1/p} \end{equation*} is nonincreasing in $t$. The infimum here is taken over pairs of coupled Brownian motions $\mathsf{b}^1$ and $\mathsf{b}^2$ on $X$ with given initial distributions $\mu_1$ and $\mu_2$, respectively, and $\underline{k}(x,y) := \inf_\gamma \int_0^1 k(\gamma_s)\,\mathrm{d} s$ denotes the "average" of $k$ along geodesics $\gamma$ connecting $x$ and $y$. Furthermore, for any pair of initial distributions $\mu_1$ and $\mu_2$ on $X$, we prove the existence of a pair of coupled Brownian motions $\mathsf{b}^1$ and $\mathsf{b}^2$ such that a.s. for every $s,t\in[0,\infty)$ with $s\leq t$, we have \begin{equation*} \mathsf{d}\!\left(\mathsf{b}_t^1,\mathsf{b}_t^2\right)\leq \mathrm{e}^{-\int_s^t \underline{k}\left(\mathsf{b}_r^1,\mathsf{b}_r^2\right)/2\,\mathrm{d} r} \mathsf{d}\!\left(\mathsf{b}_s^1,\mathsf{b}_s^2\right)\!. \end{equation*}