Otto calculus
Mathematical system for studying diffusion equations
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The Otto calculus (also known as Otto's calculus) is a mathematical system for studying diffusion equations that views the space of probability measures as an infinite dimensional Riemannian manifold by interpreting the Wasserstein distance as if it was a Riemannian metric.[1][2]
It is named after Felix Otto,[1] who developed it in the late 1990s and published it in a 2001 paper on the geometry of dissipative evolution equations.[3][4] Otto acknowledges inspiration from earlier work by David Kinderlehrer and conversations with Robert McCann and Cédric Villani.[4]
