On the Matrix Monge-Kantorovich Problem

Abstract: The classical Monge-Kantorovich (MK) problem as originally posed is concerned with how best to move a pile of soil or rubble to an excavation or fill with the least amount of work relative to some cost function. When the cost is given by the square of the Euclidean distance, one can define a metric on densities called the "Wasserstein distance." In this note, we formulate a natural matrix counterpart of the MK problem for positive definite density matrices. We prove a number of results about this metric including showing that it can be formulated as a convex optimization problem, strong duality, an analogue of the Poincare-Wirtinger inequality, and a Lax-Hopf-Oleinik type result.