A Dacorogna-Moser approach to flow decomposition and minimal flow problems

Abstract: The papers describes an easy approach, based on a classical construction by Dacorogna and Moser, to prove that optimal vector fields in some minimal flow problem linked to optimal transport models (congested traffic, branched transport, Beckmann's problem...) are induced by a probability measure on the space of paths. This gives a new, easier, proof of a classical result by Smirnov, and allows handling optimal flows without taking care of the presence of cycles.