English

Multidimensional cost geometry

Differential Geometry 2026-05-19 v2 Mathematical Physics math.MP

Abstract

In this paper, we study the geometric structure induced by the canonical reciprocal cost function and its natural nn-dimensional extension. In logarithmic coordinates, the potential depends only on the linear combination S=αtS=\alpha\cdot t, and the associated Hessian metric has rank one at every point. The geometry is intrinsically degenerate and effectively one-dimensional, with an (n1)(n-1)-dimensional null distribution. On the other hand, when the same function is expressed in the original xx-coordinates, the corresponding Hessian is generically nondegenerate and defines a pseudo-Riemannian metric away from explicit singular hypersurfaces. We further analyze affine and Levi-Civita geodesics and compare their behavior. In particular, affine geodesics in logarithmic coordinates are globally defined, while in xx-coordinates their behavior is restricted by the domain and the singular set. Finally, we relate the construction to symmetrized Itakura-Saito and Bregman divergences, and give a Fisher-Rao realization of the logarithmic Hessian metric.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2604.06957,
  title  = {Multidimensional cost geometry},
  author = {Jonathan Washburn and Milan Zlatanović and Philip Beltracchi},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2604.06957},
  year   = {2026}
}
R2 v1 2026-07-01T11:59:05.635Z