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Questions tagged [gradient-flows]

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2 votes
1 answer
142 views

Existence of first variation

I am trying to compute the first variation of the functional $$\mathcal F(\rho) = \int_{\Omega} R(x;\rho) d\rho(x)$$ where $R$ is some function of $x$ that also depends on $\rho$. Here $\rho$ is a ...
2 votes
0 answers
74 views

Is it likely that gradient flow trajectories of a $G$-invariant function pass through degenerate points?

This question may be posed somewhat vaguely, but I'm interested to actually get an idea of what to expect, so I try to not target it at a specific result. Assume that $G$ is a compact Lie group, ...
3 votes
1 answer
483 views

Flow induced by differentiable velocity field is differentiable

Let $E$ be a $\mathbb R$-Banach space, $\tau>0$ and $v:[0,\tau]\times E\to E$ such that$^1$ $$x\mapsto t\mapsto v(t,x)\tag1$$ belongs to $C^{0,\:1}(E,C^0([0,\tau],E))$. This is enough to ensure ...
3 votes
1 answer
162 views

Gradient flows: evolution of geodesics

I’m trying to understand if, when I move the marginals of a Wasserstein geodesic along a contractive flow, the geodesic between the new probability measures is “near” to the geodesic connecting the ...
2 votes
1 answer
131 views

Gradient flows and particle representations

I was looking into gradient flows and their particle representations, mostly in the context of probability. A simple example of this is the continuity equation. Consider evolving a sample $x \sim \...
3 votes
0 answers
95 views

Harmonic heat flow, formal and rigorous

Let $ (M,g) $ be a smooth Riemann manifold without boundary, $ S^{n-1} $ is an $ n $-dimensional sphere, and $ T>0 $. Consider a weak solution $ u:M\times[0,T]\to S^{n+1} $ of $$ \partial_tu-\Delta ...
4 votes
0 answers
148 views

Exponential map for tangent space of space of distributions $\mathscr{P}_2(X)$

In Chapter 8 of the book Gradient Flows In Metric Spaces and in the Space of Probability Measures by Ambrosio et al., the tangent space to the space of distributions on $X$ (let's say $X=\mathbb{R}^d$)...
1 vote
1 answer
86 views

Is it true that $\xi \in \partial G (v)$ implies $\frac{\xi}{F'(\phi (v))} \in \partial \phi (v)$?

I am reading the introduction of Chapter 10 in the book Gradient Flows by Ambrosio and his coauthors. As we have seen in Section 1.4, in the classical theory of subdifferential calculus for proper, ...
2 votes
1 answer
291 views

When does uniqueness of a stable equilibrium imply it is globally stable?

Given a gradient dynamical system $$\dot x=-\nabla f(x),$$ my question is: (1) If there exists only one equilibrium $x^*$ which is stable (if necessary, this can be changed to stable asymptotically ...
1 vote
1 answer
181 views

Gradient descent under the presence of symmetries

Let $M$ be a Riemannian manifold (I'm happy to assume it is Euclidean space) with a function $f: M \to \mathbb R$ and a group of isometries $G$ acting on $M$ and preserving $f$, i.e., $f(gm) = f(m)$ ...
5 votes
1 answer
388 views

How can we prove that a stochastic process converges to a deterministic value?

As an illustrative example, consider a modified O-U process $dX_t = -X_tdt + \exp(-t)dW_t$. It is not too hard to understand that after a while the behaviour is dominated by the deterministic ...
1 vote
0 answers
154 views

Relation between two gradient dynamics

If $f:\mathbb{R}^n\rightarrow\mathbb{R}_+$ is a nonnegative real analytic function and $g:\mathbb{R}^n\rightarrow\mathbb{R}$ is a strongly convex smooth function with a surjective gradient $\nabla g:\...
2 votes
1 answer
677 views

What are the best definitions for smoothness of a 2D curve (real-valued function)?

Sounds like a trivial question, but could not find any answer other than the fact that there are many ways to define it. My problem is this: I look at different elevation maps, some with sharp ...
1 vote
0 answers
96 views

Dynamical formulation of the 2-Wasserstein distance for *discrete* matrix-valued measures

TL;DR: I want to find a definition generalizing "$t \mapsto \frac{1}{m} \sum_{k = 1}^{m} \delta_{x_k(t)}$ is a Wasserstein gradient flow" to matrix-valued probability measures. Let $(X, d)$ ...
1 vote
0 answers
259 views

Expressing the Ricci flow as a gradient flow in a case that manifold $(M,g)$ is a Riemannian manifold with boundary

I want to express the Ricci flow as a gradient flow in a case that manifold $(M,g)$ is a Riemannian manifold with boundary. For this I use the Einstein-Hilbert action $$S(g_{\mu \nu})=\frac{1}{16\pi}\...
3 votes
1 answer
168 views

Equivalent definition of the Kantorovich-Fisher-Rao distance

I am reading this paper "A JKO splitting scheme for Kantorovich-Fisher-Rao gradient flows" (https://arxiv.org/abs/1602.04457) and in the proof of Proposition 2.2, basically, if the measure ...
2 votes
1 answer
308 views

Gradient descent relaxation dynamics of a Euler-Lagrange equation

I want to minimize the functional $$ F=\int{L(u)}dx, $$ where $L= u_x^2-u^2$ is the Lagrangian function of the functional. Even if its Euler-Lagrange equation is easily found and solved, I want to try ...
5 votes
3 answers
643 views

What quantities are conserved under a general gradient-flow $\dot X(t) = -\nabla L(X(t))$?

Let $L:\mathbb R^N \to \mathbb R$ be a continuously differential function with gradient $x \mapsto \nabla L(x)$ and consider induced gradient-flow $$ \dot X(t) = -\nabla L(X(t)). $$ Question. Is ...
3 votes
1 answer
159 views

Does gravity constant affect boundedness of solution?

Consider a second order gradient-like system with linear damping $$\ddot{x}+\dot{x}+\nabla f(x)=0, \quad x(0)=x_0,\quad\dot{x}(0)=0$$ Suppose $f\in C^2(\mathbb{R}^n)$ and $\inf_{x\in\mathbb{R}^n}f(x)&...
3 votes
0 answers
93 views

Regularity of center manifold

Consider a $C^r$ vector field $f \colon \mathbb{R}^n \to \mathbb{R}^n$ with $r \geq 1$. Let $\bar x$ be a critical point of $f$, that is, $f(\bar x) = 0$. Suppose that the spectrum of $\mathrm{D}f(\...
0 votes
0 answers
254 views

Geodesics and gradient flow

Is there a construction in Riemannian geometry which relates the gradient flow of a function on a manifold with a certain metric with geodesics on another related manifold with its own metric?
6 votes
2 answers
584 views

The negative gradient flow of a Morse-Bott function on a compact manifold converges to a critical point?

Let $(M, g)$ be a compact Riemannian manifold and $f: M \rightarrow \mathbb{R}$ be a Morse-Bott function, i.e. the set a critical points of $f$, $Crit(f)$, has connected components which are smooth ...
6 votes
1 answer
259 views

Intersection of self-shrinkers

I have a problem regarding a statement in the paper Smooth compactness of self-shrinkers by Colding and Minicozzi. In the article, they define a surface $\Sigma$ in $\mathbb R^3$ to be a self-shrinker ...
1 vote
1 answer
195 views

Metric / strong slope restriction of function on unit ball in $\mathbb R^m$

Diclaimer. I'm not sure this is the right venue for this question, but I'll give it a try Definition [Strong / metric slope]. Given a complete metric space $(M,d)$ and a function $f:M \to (-\infty,+\...
2 votes
0 answers
262 views

Do Chern-Simons terms qualitatively alter the behavior of the Yang-Mills gradient flow?

I'm reading about the Yang-Mills heat flow, and I'm curious how adding a Chern-Simons term alters its solutions. This is probably elementary or folklore, but I don't know well enough to say. ...
0 votes
0 answers
223 views

Convergence of ODE solutions almost everywhere to a stable equilibrium point

Theorem: Suppose ${\bf g} :\mathbb{R}^n \mapsto \mathbb{R}^n$ is continuously differentiable, there exists a set $\mathcal{A} \subset \mathbb{R}^n$ such that $\bf g$ is uniformly Lipschitz on $\...
1 vote
1 answer
436 views

Rewriting PDE as "push-forward"

Suppose that we have the following PDE $$\partial_t \mu_t = \nabla\cdot \left(\nabla \mu_t - (b*\mu_t)\mu_t\right), \tag{1}$$ with $\mu_0$ being a (smooth) probability measure/density on $\mathbb{R}^d$...
3 votes
1 answer
474 views

Geometric flow by the level sets of a harmonic function

Let $u$ be an harmonic function in a cylindrical domain $B_2^{n-1}\times(-1,1)\subset\mathbb{R}^n$, and suppose its level sets $\Gamma_t=\{u=t\}$ are graphs of functions on $B_2^{n-1}$. Consider a ...
2 votes
0 answers
65 views

Chain recurrent points of a gradient-like system

Let $X$ be a compact metric space and $f:X\to X $ homeomorphism. Let $V:X\to \mathbb{R}$ be a Lyapunov function for $(X,f)$ (continuous function such that $(\forall x\notin Fix(f))\ \ V(f(x))<V(x))...
1 vote
1 answer
169 views

Gradient-like dynamical systems

I've tried asking this question on Mathematics site, but I only got an upvote and no answer. I've searched online, tried to find something about this topic, but I haven't found much (and the things I ...
0 votes
0 answers
152 views

Metric obstructions for area-preserving diffeomorphisms with constant singular values

Let $\mathbb{T}^2$ be the topological $2$-dimensional torus, and let $0<\sigma_1 < \sigma_2$ satisfy $\sigma_1 \sigma_2=1$. Let $g$ be an arbitrary smooth Riemannian metric on $\mathbb{T}^2$. ...
5 votes
0 answers
140 views

What kinds of gradient-flows on $\mathbb R^d$ preserve the log-concavity of the distribution $\mu_0$ of starting point $x_0$

Let $\mu_0$ be a log-concave distribution on $\mathbb R^d$ and let $f:\mathbb R^d \to \mathbb R$ be $C^2$. Let $x_0$ be sampled uniformly at random from a log-concave distribution $\mu_0$, meaning ...
2 votes
0 answers
50 views

A question about strong slopes (nonsmooth analysis)

Context. I'm reading the manuscrip "Nonlinear Error Bounds via a Change of Function" by Dominique Azé and Jean-Noël Corvellec (J Optim Theory Appl 2016), and I'm having a hard time ...
3 votes
1 answer
234 views

Kac-Rice formula and Borell-TIS inequalities for gradient-flow of centered gaussian random field

Let $x\mapsto g(x)$ be a centered gaussian random field on $\mathbb R^m$. Let $x_0 \in \mathbb R^n$, and (assuming regularity conditions) consider the gradient-flow $$ \dot{x}(t) = -\nabla g(x(t)), \;...
3 votes
0 answers
103 views

Concentration inequalities for gradient flows induced by random fields

Let $G=(G(x))_{x \in \mathbb R^m}$ be a conservative random field with values in $\mathbb R^m$, for large positive integer $m$. That is, there exists a scalar random field $g=(g(x))_{x \in \mathbb R^m}...
0 votes
0 answers
100 views

Relation between test and train error with gradient descent iterates

My question is about establishing an inequality between population error and expected training error (i.e, expected training error < population error) for a model trained with gradient descent on a ...
4 votes
2 answers
784 views

Gradient flows: convex potential vs. contractive flow?

Take a $\mathcal C^2$ potential $V:\mathbb R^d\to \mathbb R$, and assume that it is bounded from below (say $\min V=0$ for simplicity, so that $V\geq 0$). Consider the autonomous gradient-flow $$ \dot ...
2 votes
0 answers
83 views

Center-stable manifold theorem on manifold with boundary

I would like to see if there is a Center-stable manifold theorem on the phase space that is a manifold with boundary. Suppose $f:M\rightarrow M$ is a diffeomorphism, according to Theorem III.7 in "...
11 votes
2 answers
3k views

Textbooks or notes on gradient flows in metric spaces

What is a good introduction in gradient flows in metric spaces? I know the book Gradient flows: in metric spaces and in the space of probability measures by Luigi Ambrosio, Nicola Gigli and Giuseppe ...
1 vote
0 answers
152 views

Well-posedness of gradient flows

For a convex lower-semicontinuous functional on a Hilbert space $I\colon H\rightarrow\mathbb{R}$, it is shown in Evans' PDE that the Hilbert-space-valued ODE $$\begin{cases}\mathbf{u}'(t)\in-\partial ...
5 votes
0 answers
281 views

Basin of attraction of gradient flow

Suppose we have a compact Riemannian manifold $(M,g)$, and a Morse function $f : M \rightarrow \mathbb{R}$. Suppose we consider the gradient flow generated by this function, i.e. $$\dot{x_t} = - \...
8 votes
0 answers
295 views

What is nice in gradient flows?

First of all, I am sorry for such naivety. I have not all the intuition in hard analysis as I wish. I am studying Perelman's work and his big first contribution is to prove that the Ricci flow is in ...