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In this note, we generalize the classical optimal partial transport (OPT) problem by modifying the mass destruction/creation term to function-based terms, introducing what we term ``generalized optimal partial transport'' problems. We then…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2024-07-10 Yikun Bai

Several recent applications of optimal transport (OT) theory to machine learning have relied on regularization, notably entropy and the Sinkhorn algorithm. Because matrix-vector products are pervasive in the Sinkhorn algorithm, several…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2021-03-09 Meyer Scetbon , Marco Cuturi , Gabriel Peyré

Sinkhorn's algorithm is a method of choice to solve large-scale optimal transport (OT) problems. In this context, it involves an inverse temperature parameter $\beta$ that determines the speed-accuracy trade-off. To improve this trade-off,…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2024-08-22 Lénaïc Chizat

Partial Optimal Transport (POT) addresses the problem of transporting only a fraction of the total mass between two distributions, making it suitable when marginals have unequal size or contain outliers. While Sinkhorn-based methods are…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2026-04-07 Nghia Thu Truong , Qui Phu Pham , Quang Nguyen , Dung Luong , Mai Tran

This paper investigates the semi-discrete optimal transport (OT) problem with entropic regularization. We characterize the solution using a governing, well-posed ordinary differential equation (ODE). This naturally yields an algorithm to…

Numerical Analysis · Mathematics 2025-04-07 Luca Nenna , Daniyar Omarov , Brendan Pass

In this paper, we study the Entropic Martingale Optimal Transport (EMOT) problem on \mathbb{R}. The investigation of the EMOT problem arises in the calibration problem of the Stochastic Volatility Models, where martingale constraints…

Probability · Mathematics 2026-02-16 Fan Chen , Giovanni Conforti , Zhenjie Ren , Xiaozhen Wang

Inverse optimal transport (OT) refers to the problem of learning the cost function for OT from observed transport plan or its samples. In this paper, we derive an unconstrained convex optimization formulation of the inverse OT problem,…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2021-07-06 Shaojun Ma , Haodong Sun , Xiaojing Ye , Hongyuan Zha , Haomin Zhou

Entropy regularized optimal transport and its multi-marginal generalization have attracted increasing attention in various applications, in particular due to efficient Sinkhorn-like algorithms for computing optimal transport plans. However,…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2023-01-25 Florian Beier , Johannes von Lindheim , Sebastian Neumayer , Gabriele Steidl

This paper addresses the problem of Unbalanced Optimal Transport (UOT) in which the marginal conditions are relaxed (using weighted penalties in lieu of equality) and no additional regularization is enforced on the OT plan. In this context,…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2021-06-09 Laetitia Chapel , Rémi Flamary , Haoran Wu , Cédric Févotte , Gilles Gasso

Regularized optimal transport (OT) is now increasingly used as a loss or as a matching layer in neural networks. Entropy-regularized OT can be computed using the Sinkhorn algorithm but it leads to fully-dense transportation plans, meaning…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2023-04-17 Tianlin Liu , Joan Puigcerver , Mathieu Blondel

The Sinkhorn algorithm is a numerical method for the solution of optimal transport problems. Here, I give a brief survey of this algorithm, with a strong emphasis on its geometric origin: it is natural to view it as a discretization, by…

Numerical Analysis · Mathematics 2025-08-12 Klas Modin

This paper addresses the Optimal Transport problem, which is regularized by the square of Euclidean $\ell_2$-norm. It offers theoretical guarantees regarding the iteration complexities of the Sinkhorn--Knopp algorithm, Accelerated Gradient…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2023-08-29 Dmitry A. Pasechnyuk , Michael Persiianov , Pavel Dvurechensky , Alexander Gasnikov

In this paper, we introduce a neural network-based method to address the high-dimensional dynamic unbalanced optimal transport (UOT) problem. Dynamic UOT focuses on the optimal transportation between two densities with unequal total mass,…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2024-09-23 Wei Wan , Jiangong Pan , Yuejin Zhang , Chenglong Bao , Zuoqiang Shi

Unbalanced optimal transport (UOT) is a natural extension of optimal transport (OT) allowing comparison between measures of different masses. It arises naturally in machine learning by offering a robustness against outliers. The aim of this…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2025-10-06 Luca Nenna , Paul Pegon , Louis Tocquec

Optimal Transport (OT) distances are now routinely used as loss functions in ML tasks. Yet, computing OT distances between arbitrary (i.e. not necessarily discrete) probability distributions remains an open problem. This paper introduces a…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2020-07-03 Arthur Mensch , Gabriel Peyré

Optimal transport (OT) distances are finding evermore applications in machine learning and computer vision, but their wide spread use in larger-scale problems is impeded by their high computational cost. In this work we develop a family of…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2018-03-06 Brahim Khalil Abid , Robert M. Gower

In this work, we develop a collection of novel methods for the entropic-regularised optimal transport problem, which are inspired by existing mirror descent interpretations of the Sinkhorn algorithm used for solving this problem. These are…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2025-07-17 Vishwak Srinivasan , Qijia Jiang

In 2013, Cuturi [Cut13] introduced the Sinkhorn algorithm for matrix scaling as a method to compute solutions to regularized optimal transport problems. In this paper, aiming at a better convergence rate for a high accuracy solution, we…

Data Structures and Algorithms · Computer Science 2023-04-06 Jingbang Chen , Li Chen , Yang P. Liu , Richard Peng , Arvind Ramaswami

In this paper, we are motivated by two important applications: entropy-regularized optimal transport problem and road or IP traffic demand matrix estimation by entropy model. Both of them include solving a special type of optimization…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2017-09-27 Pavel Dvurechensky , Alexander Gasnikov , Sergey Omelchenko , Alexander Tiurin

Optimal Transport (OT) has recently emerged as a central tool in data sciences to compare in a geometrically faithful way point clouds and more generally probability distributions. The wide adoption of OT into existing data analysis and…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2023-01-18 Thibault Séjourné , Gabriel Peyré , François-Xavier Vialard