Speaker: Farhan Abedin, Lafayette College

Title: A survey of topics in optimal transport (3 part series.  Part 1 on Feb 6.  Part 2 on Feb 13.  Part 3 on Feb 20.)

Abstract: These talks will serve as an informal introduction to a collection of topics in optimal transport, aimed primarily at graduate students interested in analysis and PDE. Topics will include (time permitting) (i) Kantorovich problem and characterization of optimal maps (ii) Wasserstein distance, geodesics, and the Benamou-Brenier formula (iii) Riemannian structure of Wasserstein space and gradient flows (iv) Parabolic Monge-Ampere equations and flows toward optimal maps.