On the geometry of irreversible metric-measure spaces: Convergence, stability and analytic aspects

Abstract

The paper is devoted to the study of Gromov-Hausdorff convergence and stability of irreversible metric-measure spaces, both in the compact and noncompact cases. While the compact setting is mostly similar to the reversible case developed by J. Lott, K.-T. Sturm and C. Villani, the noncompact case provides various surprising phenomena. Since the reversibility of noncompact irreversible spaces might be infinite, it is motivated to introduce a suitable nondecreasing function that bounds the reversibility of larger and larger balls. By this approach, we are able to prove satisfactory convergence/stability results in a suitable – reversibility depending – Gromov-Hausdorff topology. A wide class of irreversible spaces is provided by Finsler manifolds, which serve to construct various model examples by pointing out genuine differences between the reversible and irreversible settings. We conclude the paper by proving various geometric and functional inequalities (as Brunn-Minkowski, Bishop-Gromov, log-Sobolev and Lichnerowicz inequalities) on irreversible structures.