Book Review: Optimal Mass Transport on Euclidean Spaces

Leon Bungert

Abstract: Optimal transport was originally invented by Gaspard Monge [“Mémoire sur la théorie des déblais et des remblais,” Mem. Math. Phys. Acad. Royale Sci., (1781), pp. 666–704] to model the problem of optimally mapping one distribution of mass onto another. This was later reformulated by Leonid Kantorovich as a well-posed linear program using the notion of transport plans instead of maps in [“On the translocation of masses,” Dokl. Akad. Nauk. USSR (N.S.), 37 (1942), pp. 199–201], which earned him the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. In the past four decades the field of optimal transport has grown far beyond its original purpose and has evolved into a driving force for applications both within mathematics and in other sciences. This book review deals with the new monograph Optimal Mass Transport on Euclidean Spaces by Francesco Maggi.