Absolutely continuous curves in Finsler-like spaces

Abstract

The present paper is devoted to the investigation of absolutely continuous curves in asymmetric metric spaces induced by Finsler structures. Firstly, for asymmetric spaces induced by Finsler manifolds, we show that three different kinds of absolutely continuous curves coincide when their domains are bounded closed intervals. As an application, a universal existence and regularity theorem for gradient flow is obtained in the Finsler setting. Secondly, we study absolutely continuous curves in Wasserstein spaces over Finsler manifolds and establish the Lisini structure theorem in this setting, which characterize the nature of absolutely continuous curves in Wasserstein spaces in terms of dynamical transference plans concentrated on absolutely continuous curves in base Finsler manifolds. Besides, a close relation between continuity equations and absolutely continuous curves in Wasserstein spaces is founded. Last but not least, we also consider nonsmooth “Finsler-like” spaces, in which case most of the aforementioned results remain valid. Various model examples are constructed in this paper, which point out genuine differences between the asymmetric and symmetric settings.