Stability and finiteness theorems for Wasserstein spaces (Q7028958)

By a stability theorem, we mean a result asserting that a converging sequence of suitably defined geometric spaces eventually consists of mutually homeomorphic spaces. A classical example of such a theorem applies to sequences of Riemannian manifolds that converge in the Gromov-Hausdorff sense, provided there are uniform upper bounds on the dimension and diameter, and a uniform lower bound on sectional curvature. Such theorems lead directly to finiteness statements asserting that a precompact class of geometric spaces contains only finitely many homeomorphism types. Numerous results of this kind have been established in the literature, though typically restricted to finite-dimensional settings.\N\NThe article under review investigates stability and finiteness theorems for Wasserstein spaces, which are (infinite-dimensional) spaces of probability measures equipped with the 2-Wasserstein distance. Denoting the Wasserstein space over a metric space \(X\) by \(\mathbb{P}_2(X)\), one of the main results of the paper shows that if \(\{X_i\}\) and \(X\) are \(n\)-dimensional Riemannian manifolds with uniformly upper bounded diameter and sectional curvature bounded from below, then the Gromov-Hausdorff convergence of \(\mathbb{P}_2(X_i)\) to \(\mathbb{P}_2(X)\) implies that \(\mathbb{P}_2(X_i)\) and \(\mathbb{P}_2(X)\) are homeomorphic for all sufficiently large \(i\).\N\NThis result relies on the key observation that, for this class of manifolds, the Gromov-Hausdorff convergence of the Wasserstein spaces \(\mathbb{P}_2(X_i)\) to \(\mathbb{P}_2(X)\) is equivalent to the convergence of \(X_i\) to \(X\). The full statement, which holds under more general conditions on the spaces \(X_i\) and \(X\), is given as Theorem D of the paper.\N\NThe paper also includes discussions on broader settings, such as non-smooth spaces like Alexandrov and \(\mathsf{RCD}(K,N)\) spaces, as well as on equivariant Gromov-Hausdorff convergence.