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For $p \in [1, \infty)$, let $\mathcal P_p (\mathbb{R^d})$ be the space of Borel probability measures on $\mathbb R^d$ with finite $p$-th moment. We endow $\mathcal P_p (\mathbb{R^d})$ with the Wasserstein metric $W_p$. Now we fix $p \in (1, \infty)$.

Are there Lipschitz maps $I_p^n : \mathcal P_1 (\mathbb{R^d}) \to \mathcal P_p (\mathbb{R^d})$ for $n \in \mathbb N$ such that $\lim_{n \to \infty} W_1(\mu, I^n_p (\mu))=0$ for all $\mu \in \mathcal P_1 (\mathbb{R^d})$?

Thank you so much for your elaboration!

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  • $\begingroup$ I can do $\frac 1p$-Hölder maps, if that's interesting to you I can post the answer $\endgroup$ Commented Apr 2 at 8:37
  • $\begingroup$ @leomonsaingeon Of course, it is interesting. Thank you so much and please post your answer! $\endgroup$
    – Akira
    Commented Apr 2 at 8:56

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$\newcommand{\R}{\mathbb R}$This is only a partial answer in the sense that it will provide $\frac 1p$-Hölder maps, not Lipschitz. I still hope it can help.


Fix a big radius $R>0$ (I like $R\to\infty$ instead of $n$, it helps me to better visualize), and consider the map $T=T_R:\R^d\to\R^d$ projecting points onto the ball $B_R=B_R(0)\subset\R^d$ given by $$ T_R(x)=\operatorname{Proj}_{B_R}(x)= \begin{cases} x & \text{if }|x|\leq R\\ R\frac{x}{|x|} & \text{if }|x|\geq R. \end{cases} $$ Consider $I_R:W_1(\R^d)\to W_p(\R^d)$ defined as $$ I_R(\mu):= {T_R}_{\#}\mu. $$ Since $T_R$ maps $\R^d$ to $\overline{B_R}$ clearly the measure $I(\mu)$ has support in $\overline{B_R}$ and thus has finite $p$-moment for any $p>1$, i-e $I_R$ indeed maps $W_1$ to $W_p$.


I first claim that $I_R$ is $\frac 1p$-Hölder. For this, fix $\mu,\nu\in W_1$ and let $\pi\in\Pi(\mu,\nu)$ be any optimal plan for the $W_1$ transportation problem betwenn $\mu,\nu$. For convenience let me write $\mu_R=I_R(\mu)$ and $\nu_R=I_R(\nu)$, and set $\pi_R:=(T_R,T_R)_{\#}\pi$. It is immediate to check that $\pi_R\in \Pi(\mu_R,\nu_R)$ has marginals $\mu_R,\nu_R$, hence $$ W_p^p(\mu_R,\nu_R)\leq \iint |x-y|^p\pi_R(dx,dy)=\iint |T_R(x)-T_R(y)|^p\pi(dx,dy). $$ It is easy to check that $|T_R(x)-T_R(y)|\leq |x-y|$ ($T_R$ is the projection onto the convex set $B_R$!), hence writing \begin{multline*} |T_R(x)-T_R(y)|^p=|T_R(x)-T_R(y)|^{p-1}|T_R(x)-T_R(y)| \\ \leq (2R)^{p-1}|T_R(x)-T_R(y)|\leq (2R)^{p-1}|x-y| \end{multline*} we get immediately $$ W_p^p(\mu_R,\nu_R)\leq (2R)^{p-1}\iint |x-y|\pi(dx,dy)=(2R)^{p-1}W_1(\mu,\nu). $$ (This is a classical trick allowing to interpolate $W_p$ between $W_1$ and $W_\infty$, roughly speaking.) This reads $$ W_p(I(\mu),I(\nu))\leq (2R)^{\frac{p-1}{p}} W_1^{\frac 1p}(\mu,\nu) $$ and thus $I=I_R$ is $\frac 1p$-Hölder (with quantified Hölder constant).


Let me finally check that, for any fixed $\mu\in W_1$ we have convergence $I_R(\mu)=\mu_R\to \mu$ as $R\to+\infty$. For this, note that $\pi_R:=(\operatorname{id},T_R)_{\#}\mu$ has marginals $\mu, \mu_R$. As a consequence \begin{multline*} W_1(\mu,\mu_R) \leq \iint |x-y|\pi_R(dx,dy) =\int_{\R^d} |x-T_R(x)|\mu(dx) =\int_{|x|\geq R}\left|x-R\frac{x}{|x|}\right|\mu(dx) \\ =\int_{|x|\geq R}\left|1-\frac{R}{|x|}\right||x|\mu(dx) \leq 2\int_{|x|\geq R}|x|\mu(dx). \end{multline*} (The las inequality follows from $|1-\frac{R}{|x|}|\leq 1 + \frac{R}{|x|}\leq 2$ for $|x|\geq R$.) Finally, since $\mu\in W_1$ has finite first moment $\int|x|\mu(dx)<\infty$ it follows that the last integral converges to zero as $R\to\infty$ and the claim follows.


Comment: resorting to compact support in $B_R$ is very rough and ends up giving $\frac 1p$ Hölder, bu you may actually get Lipschitz by refining the idea, for example considering the map $$ T_R(x)=\begin{cases} x & \text{if }|x|\leq R\\ R\left|\frac{x}{R}\right|^{\frac 1p}\frac{x}{|x|} & \text{if }|x|\geq R. \end{cases} $$ transforms 1st moments of $\mu$ into p-th moments of $\mu_R={T_R}_{\#}\mu$. I didn't check the rest of the details, but if you really want Lipschitz it's worth a try. (Certainly some convexity should help: For example $T_R$ is the gradient of a convex map, so it is automatically an optimal map from $\mu$ to $\mu_R$ and the last step to prove that $W_1(\mu,\mu_R)\to 0$ works exactly in the same way.)

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