English

The tangent space to the Wasserstein space: parallel transport and other applications

Analysis of PDEs 2025-12-11 v1 Metric Geometry Optimization and Control

Abstract

We propose a new notion of the formal tangent space to the Wasserstein space P(X)\mathcal{P}(X) at a given measure. Modulo an integrability condition, we say that this tangent space is made of functions over XX which are valued in the probability measures over the tangent bundle to XX. This generalization of previous concepts of tangent spaces allows us to define appropriate notions of parallel transport, C1,α\mathcal{C}^{1,\alpha} regularity over P(X)\mathcal{P}(X) and translation of a curve over P(X)\mathcal{P}(X).

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2512.09763,
  title  = {The tangent space to the Wasserstein space: parallel transport and other applications},
  author = {Charles Bertucci},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2512.09763},
  year   = {2025}
}