Stochastic monotonicity from an Eulerian viewpoint

Abstract

Stochastic monotonicity is a well known partial order relation between probability measures defined on the same partially ordered set. Strassen Theorem establishes equivalence between stochastic monotonicity and the existence of a coupling compatible with respect to the partial order. We consider the case of a countable set and introduce the class of \emph{finitely decomposable flows} on a directed acyclic graph associated to the partial order. We show that a probability measure stochastically dominates another probability measure if and only if there exists a finitely decomposable flow having divergence given by the difference of the two measures. We illustrate the result with some examples. In fluid theory the Lagrangian description follows the trajectories of the particles while the Eulerian one observes the local flow. A coupling gives a Lagrangian description of the transference plan of mass while a flow gives an Eulerian one