Squared quadratic Wasserstein distance : optimal couplings and Lions differentiability

Abstract

In this paper, we remark that any optimal coupling for the quadratic Wasserstein distance $W^2_2(\mu,\nu)$ between two probability measures $\mu$ and $\nu$ with finite second order moments on $\mathbb{R}^d$ is the composition of a martingale coupling with an optimal transport map ${\mathcal T}$. We check the existence of an optimal coupling in which this map gives the unique optimal coupling between $\mu$ and ${\mathcal T}\#\mu$. Next, we give a direct proof that $\sigma\mapsto W_2^2(\sigma,\nu)$ is differentiable at $\mu$ in the Lions sense iff there is a unique optimal coupling between $\mu$ and $\nu$ and this coupling is given by a map. It was known combining results by Ambrosio, Gigli and Savar\'e and Ambrosio and Gangbo that, under the latter condition, geometric differentiability holds. Moreover, the two notions of differentiability are equivalent according to the recent paper of Gangbo and Tudorascu. Besides, we give a self-contained probabilistic proof that mere Fr\'echet differentiability of a law invariant function $F$ on $L^2(\Omega,\mathbb{P};\mathbb{R}^d)$ is enough for the Fr\'echet differential at $X$ to be a measurable function of $X$.