Variable Exponent Wasserstein Spaces: Stability of Entropy Convexity and Modified Rényi Entropy

Abstract

We study the Wasserstein space $\mathcal{P}(M)$ equipped with a distance $\Wp$ constructed from the Lagrangian $L(x,v)=|v|^{p(x)}$ where $p(x)=2+\varepsilon(x)$ with $\varepsilon$ small. Building on the fundamental work of Lott and Villani on the $K$-geodesic convexity of the Boltzmann entropy in $(\mathcal{P}(M),\Wb)$, we establish a generalized inequality showing that the entropy remains $\left(K - C\|\varepsilon\|_\infty\right)$-convex along $\Wp$-geodesics. We then introduce a modified Rényi entropy that exactly compensates the logarithmic divergence that appears in the expansions of $\Wp^2$, obtaining thus a sharp equivalence that reaveals the Bakry-Émery tensor as the effective curvature in the variable exponent setting. As applications, we derive perturbed versions of the Log-Sobolev and Talagrand inequalities in variable exponent Wasserstein spaces, showing that these fundamental functional inequalities are robust under small perturbations of the transport exponent. This work generalizes the Lott-Villani theorem and its consequences (\emph{J. Lott and C. Villani, Ann. of Math. \textbf{169} (2009), 903-991}) to situations where the transport metric varies spatially.