Quantum and Semiquantum Pseudometrics and Applications

Abstract: We establish a Kantorovich duality for the pseudometric $\mathcal{E}\hbar$ introduced in [F. Golse, T. Paul, Arch. Rational Mech. Anal. 223 (2017), 57--94], obtained from the usual Monge-Kantorovich distance $d{MK,2}$ between classical densities by quantization of one of the two densities involved. We show several type of inequalities comparing $d_{MK,2}$, $\mathcal{E}\hbar$ and $MK\hbar$, a full quantum analogue of $d_{MK,2}$ introduced in [F. Golse, C. Mouhot, T. Paul, Commun. Math. Phys. 343 (2016), 165--205], including an up to $\hbar$ triangle inequality for $MK_\hbar$. Finally, we show that, when nice optimal Kantorovich potentials exist for $\mathcal{E}_\hbar$, optimal couplings induce classical/quantum optimal transports and the potentials are linked by a semiquantum Legendre type transform.