Interaction energy 2026-10-25
The factor counts unordered pairs once. For a symmetric interaction potential, this energy is unchanged by translating the entire probability measure. It therefore cannot have positive uniform displacement convexity on the unrestricted space containing translations. If , integrate the pointwise strong convexity inequality along an optimal transport plan and its independent copy. The variance identity for independent copies then gives -displacement convexity on every class with fixed barycenter of a measure, whenever the integrals are finite.
Define the barycenter of a measure by . Under , the mean displacement is , and optimality gives . Expanding the square under the product measure yields the variance identity for independent copies:In the classical regime of part (c), the lower bound on the Hessian matrix of the interaction potential therefore givesFor equal barycenters, this becomes
For the full stated class of probability measures, prove the displacement convexity inequality directly. Pointwise strong convexity of givesIntegrating, including the in the interaction energy, and using the displayed variance identity for independent copies givesAll terms are finite by quadratic growth and finite second absolute moments. Equal barycenters give the claimed -displacement convexity. Also , so this metric geodesic remains in the prescribed fixed-mean class. Applying the same argument to subintervals proves the second derivative bound in the sense of distributions even when a classical derivative has not been justified. The mean restriction is natural: translating all particles together leaves their pairwise differences and hence the interaction energy unchanged.