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Cedric Villani

Publications and source records attributed to Cedric Villani.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

The Hamilton-Jacobi semigroup on length spaces and applications

We define a Hamilton-Jacobi semigroup acting on continuous functions on a compact length space. Following a strategy of Bobkov, Gentil and Ledoux, we use some basic properties of the semigroup to study geometric inequalities related to concentration of measure. Our main results are that (1) a Talagrand inequality on a measured length space implies a global Poincare inequality and (2) if the space satisfies a doubling condition, a local Poincare inequality and a log Sobolev inequality then it also satisfies a Talagrand inequality.

math.DG

Weak curvature conditions and functional inequalities

We give sufficient conditions for a measured length space (X,d,m) to admit local and global Poincare inequalities. We first introduce a condition DM on (X,d,m), defined in terms of transport of measures. We show that DM, along with a doubling condition on m, implies a scale-invariant local Poincare inequality. We show that if (X,d,m) has nonnegative N-Ricci curvature and has unique minimizing geodesics between almost all pairs of points then it satisfies DM, with constant 2^N. The condition DM is preserved by measured Gromov-Hausdorff limits. We then prove a Sobolev inequality for measured length spaces with N-Ricci curvature bounded below by K>0. Finally, we prove a sharp global inequality.

math.DG

Ricci curvature for metric-measure spaces via optimal transport

We define a notion of a measured length space X having nonnegative N-Ricci curvature, for N finite, or having infinity-Ricci curvature bounded below by K, for K a real number. The definitions are in terms of the displacement convexity of certain functions on the associated Wasserstein space P_2(X) of probability measures. We show that these properties are preserved under measured Gromov-Hausdorff limits. We give geometric and analytic consequences.

math.DG

Quantitative concentration inequalities for empirical measures on non-compact spaces

We establish some quantitative concentration estimates for the empirical measure of many independent variables, in transportation distances. As an application, we provide some error bounds for particle simulations in a model mean field problem. The tools include coupling arguments, as well as regularity and moments estimates for solutions of certain diffusive partial differential equations.

math.PR

On the Boltzmann equation for diffusively excited granular media

We study the Boltzmann equation for a space-homogeneous gas of inelastic hard spheres, with a diffusive term representing a random background forcing. Under the assumption that the initial datum is a nonnegative $L^2$ function, with bounded mass and kinetic energy (second moment), we prove the existence of a solution to this model, which instantaneously becomes smooth and rapidly decaying. Under a weak additional assumption of bounded third moment, the solution is shown to be unique. We also establish the existence (but not uniqueness) of a stationary solution. In addition we show that the high-velocity tails of both the stationary and time-dependent particle distribution functions are overpopulated with respect to the Maxwellian distribution, as conjecturedby previous authors, and we prove pointwise lower estimates for the solutions.

math.AP