SMS scnews item created by Catherine Meister at Mon 13 Apr 2026 1040
Type: Seminar
Distribution: World
Expiry: 27 Apr 2026
Calendar1: 16 Apr 2026 1300-1400
CalLoc1: SMRI Seminar Room (A12 Macleay Room 301)
CalTitle1: SMRI Seminar: A physicist's view on the assignment and optimal transport problems
Auth: cmeister@159-196-153-133.9fc499.syd.nbn.aussiebb.net (cmei0631) in SMS-SAML
SMRI Seminar: Koehl
A physicist's view on the assignment and optimal transport problems
Patrice Koehl, UC Davis
SMRI Seminar, Thursday 16th April 2026, 1 pm – 2 pm, SMRI Seminar Room (A12 Macleay Room 301)
Abstract: Optimal transport (OT) has become a discipline by itself that offers solutions to a wide range of
theoretical problems in probability and mathematics. Despite its appealing theoretical properties,
solving the OT problem involves the resolution of a linear program whose computational cost can quickly
become prohibitive whenever the size of the problem exceeds a few hundred points.
The recent introduction of entropy regularization, however, has led to the development of fast
algorithms for solving an approximate OT problem. The successes of those algorithms have resulted
in a popularization of the applications of OT in several applied fields including geometry, machine learning, and in data sciences in general. Problems remain, however, as to the numerical
convergence of those regularized approximations towards the actual OT solution. In addition,
the physical meaning of this regularization is unclear. In this talk, I will describe a novel approach
to solving the discrete balanced and unbalanced OT problems using techniques adapted from statistical
physics. I will illustrate applications of this framework to the problem of image comparison
as well as to the problem of comparing three dimensional shapes.
For seminar updates, see our What's On Calendar. Please join us after the seminar for the SMRI afternoon tea, every Thursday at 2 pm on the SMRI Terrace.