Kurdyka-Lojasiewicz-Simon inequality for gradient flows in metric spaces

Abstract: This paper is dedicated to providing new tools and methods for studying the trend to equilibrium of gradient flows in metric spaces in the entropy and metric sense, to establish decay rates, finite time of extinction, and to characterize Lyapunov stable equilibrium points. In addition we outline that the celebrated Entropy-Entropy production inequality used in kinetic theory is nothing less than a global Kurdyka-Lojasiewicz-Simon inequality. This links two different areas, namely, algebraic geometry with kinetic theory. As an application of the tools developed in this paper, we obtain the following results: - New upper bounds on the extinction time of gradient flows associated with the total variational flow. - If the metric space is the p-Wasserstein space, then new HWI-, Talagrand-, and logarithmic Sobolev inequalities are obtained for functionals associated with nonlinear diffusion problems modeling drift, potential and interaction phenomena. - It is shown that these inequalities are equivalent to the Kurdyka-Lojasiewicz-Simon inequality and hence, they imply trend to equilibrium of the gradient flows with decay rates or arrival in finite time.