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We take a new look at the relation between the optimal transport problem and the Schr\"{o}dinger bridge problem from the stochastic control perspective. We show that the connections are richer and deeper than described in existing…

Systems and Control · Computer Science 2014-12-16 Yongxin Chen , Tryphon Georgiou , Michele Pavon

In this paper, we study higher-order-accurate-in-time minimizing movements schemes for Wasserstein gradient flows. We introduce a novel accelerated second-order scheme, leveraging the differential structure of the Wasserstein space in both…

Analysis of PDEs · Mathematics 2025-12-23 Raymond Chu , Matt Jacobs

The aim of this paper is to address the challenge of gradual domain adaptation within a class of manifold-constrained data distributions. In particular, we consider a sequence of $T\ge2$ data distributions $P_1,\ldots,P_T$ undergoing a…

We consider an infinite lattice system of interacting spins living on a smooth compact manifold, with short- but not necessarily finite-range pairwise interactions. We construct the gradient flow of the infinite-volume free energy on the…

Probability · Mathematics 2025-02-19 Ronan Herry , Thomas Leblé

We study the convergence of stochastic time-discretization schemes for evolution equations driven by random velocity fields, including examples like stochastic gradient descent and interacting particle systems. Using a unified framework…

Functional Analysis · Mathematics 2025-05-28 Giulia Cavagnari , Giuseppe Savaré , Giacomo Enrico Sodini

Many scientific systems, such as cellular populations or economic cohorts, are naturally described by probability distributions that evolve over time. Predicting how such a system would have evolved under different forces or initial…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2026-03-26 Tristan Luca Saidi , Gonzalo Mena , Larry Wasserman , Florian Gunsilius

We study the Wasserstein gradient flow of the Sinkhorn divergence when both the source and the target are Gaussian distributions. We prove the existence of a flow that stays in the class of Gaussian distributions, and is unique in the…

Analysis of PDEs · Mathematics 2026-02-20 Mathis Hardion , Théo Lacombe

Distributionally robust optimization (DRO) problems are increasingly seen as a viable method to train machine learning models for improved model generalization. These min-max formulations, however, are more difficult to solve. We therefore…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2020-11-03 Soumyadip Ghosh , Mark Squillante , Ebisa Wollega

Applications of optimal transport have recently gained remarkable attention thanks to the computational advantages of entropic regularization. However, in most situations the Sinkhorn approximation of the Wasserstein distance is replaced by…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2019-06-04 Giulia Luise , Alessandro Rudi , Massimiliano Pontil , Carlo Ciliberto

We present a multilevel stochastic gradient descent method for the optimal control of systems governed by partial differential equations under uncertain input data. The gradient descent method used to find the optimal control leverages a…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2025-06-04 Niklas Baumgarten , David Schneiderhan

This paper presents a theoretical framework for the design and analysis of gradient descent-based algorithms for coverage control tasks involving robot swarms. We adopt a multiscale approach to analysis and design to ensure consistency of…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2022-06-08 Vishaal Krishnan , Sonia Martínez

We develop an intrinsic geometric approach to calculus of variations on Wasserstein space. We show that the flows associated to the Schroedinger bridge with general prior, to Optimal Mass Transport and to the Madelung fluid can all be…

Mathematical Physics · Physics 2017-12-07 Giovanni Conforti , Michele Pavon

Flow Matching, a promising approach in generative modeling, has recently gained popularity. Relying on ordinary differential equations, it offers a simple and flexible alternative to diffusion models, which are currently the…

Machine Learning · Statistics 2026-03-13 Lea Kunkel

We study the optimal control formulation for stochastic nonlinear Schrodinger equation (SNLSE) on a finite graph. By viewing the SNLSE as a stochastic Wasserstein Hamiltonian flow on density manifold, we show the global existence of a…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2022-09-13 Jianbo Cui , Shu Liu , Haomin Zhou

We study evolution equations on metric graphs with reservoirs, that is graphs where a one-dimensional interval is associated to each edge and, in addition, the vertices are able to store and exchange mass with these intervals. Focusing on…

Analysis of PDEs · Mathematics 2024-12-24 Georg Heinze , Jan-Frederik Pietschmann , André Schlichting

Entropy regularization has been widely used in policy optimization algorithms to enhance exploration and the robustness of the optimal control; however it also introduces an additional regularization bias. This work quantifies the impact of…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2025-03-25 Deven Sethi , David Šiška , Yufei Zhang

We propose a variational scheme for computing Wasserstein gradient flows. The scheme builds upon the Jordan--Kinderlehrer--Otto framework with the Benamou-Brenier's dynamic formulation of the quadratic Wasserstein metric and adds a…

Numerical Analysis · Mathematics 2020-07-15 Wuchen Li , Jianfeng Lu , Li Wang

Replacing positivity constraints by an entropy barrier is popular to approximate solutions of linear programs. In the special case of the optimal transport problem, this technique dates back to the early work of Schr\"odinger. This approach…

Analysis of PDEs · Mathematics 2017-01-10 Guillaume Carlier , Vincent Duval , Gabriel Peyré , Bernhard Schmitzer

We prove the convergence of a Wasserstein gradient flow of a free energy in inhomogeneous media. Both the energy and media can depend on the spatial variable in a fast oscillatory manner. In particular, we show that the gradient-flow…

Analysis of PDEs · Mathematics 2025-08-19 Yuan Gao , Nung Kwan Yip

This paper presents a novel methodology for tractably solving optimal control and offline reinforcement learning problems for high-dimensional systems. This work is motivated by the ongoing challenges of safety, computation, and optimality…

Optimization and Control · Mathematics 2022-07-06 Aaron Kandel , Saehong Park , Scott Moura