Approach to optimal quantum transport via states over time

Abstract: We approach the problem of constructing a quantum analogue of the immensely fruitful classical transport cost theory of Monge from a new angle. Going back to the original motivations, by which the transport is a bilinear function of a mass distribution (without loss of generality a probability density) and a transport plan (a stochastic kernel), we explore the quantum version where the mass distribution is generalised to a density matrix, and the transport plan to a completely positive and trace preserving map. These two data are naturally integrated into their Jordan product, which is called state over time (``stote''), and the transport cost is postulated to be a linear function of it. We explore the properties of this transport cost, as well as the optimal transport cost between two given states (simply the minimum cost over all suitable transport plans). After that, we analyse in considerable detail the case of unitary invariant cost, for which we can calculate many costs analytically. These findings suggest that our quantum transport cost is qualitatively different from Monge's classical transport.