Optimal transport and the Gauss curvature equation

Abstract: In this short note, we consider the problem of prescribing the Gauss curvature and image of the Gauss map for the graph of a function over a domain in Euclidean space. The prescription of the image of the Gauss map turns this into a second boundary value problem. Our main observation is that this problem can be posed as an optimal transport problem where the target is a subset of the lower hemisphere of $\mathbb{S}^n$. As a result we obtain existence and regularity of solutions under mild assumptions on the curvature, as well as a quantitative version of a gradient blowup result due to Urbas, which turns out to fall within the optimal transport framework.