Quantum Optimal Transport: Quantum Couplings and Many-Body Problems

Abstract: This text is a set of lecture notes for a 4.5-hour course given at the Erd\"os Center (R\'enyi Institute, Budapest) during the Summer School "Optimal Transport on Quantum Structures" (September 19th-23rd, 2023). Lecture I introduces the quantum analogue of the Wasserstein distance of exponent $2$ defined in [F. Golse, C. Mouhot, T. Paul: Comm. Math. Phys. 343 (2016), 165-205], and in [F. Golse, T. Paul: Arch. Ration. Mech. Anal. 223 (2017) 57-94]. Lecture II discusses various applications of this quantum analogue of the Wasserstein distance of exponent $2$, while Lecture III discusses several of its most important properties, such as the triangle inequality, and the Kantorovich duality in the quantum setting, together with some of their implications.