Differential Equations Methods for the Monge-Kantorovich Mass Transfer Problem

Book excerpt: In this volume, the authors demonstrate under some assumptions on $f $, $f $ that a solution to the classical Monge-Kantorovich problem of optimally rearranging the measure $\mu{ }=f dx$ onto $\mu =f dy$ can be constructed by studying the $p$-Laplacian equation $- \roman{div}(\vert DU_p\vert p-2}Du_p)=f -f $ in the limit as $p\rightarrow\infty$. The idea is to show $u_p\rightarrow u$, where $u$ satisfies $\vert Du\vert\leq 1, -\roman{div}(aDu)=f -f $ for some density $a\geq0$, and then to build a flow by solving a nonautonomous ODE involving $a, Du, f $ and $f $