A geometric approach to apriori estimates for optimal transport maps

A key inequality which underpins the regularity theory of optimal transport for costs satisfying the Ma–Trudinger–Wang condition is the Pogorelov second derivative bound. This translates to an apriori interior $C^1$ estimate for smooth optimal maps. Here we give a new derivation of this estimate which relies in part on Kim, McCann and Warren’s observation that the graph of an optimal map becomes a volume maximizing spacelike submanifold when the product of the source and target domains is endowed with a suitable pseudo-Riemannian geometry that combines both the marginal densities and the cost.