 Solution

The dual of the Kantorovich optimal transport problem iswhere the Kantorovich potentials are measurable representatives satisfyingOne standard form of the Kantorovich duality theorem assumes that $X,Y$ are Polish spaces, $\mu ,\nu$ are probability measures defined as Borel measures, and $c:X\times Y\to [0,+\infty ]$ is sequentially lower semicontinuous. ThenThe primal infimum is attained; its value may be $+\infty$. Nonnegativity can be replaced by a constant lower bound by shifting the cost. This duality for lower semicontinuous costs is also discussed in Beiglboeck, Leonard and Schachermayer's duality paper.

Equality of values does not by itself assert a dual maximum. A sufficient stronger setting for attainment on both sides is compact metric spaces $X,Y$ and a finite continuous cost $c$; then continuous Kantorovich potentials attain the dual supremum. The general statement above correctly uses a supremum.