On the geometry of metric measure spaces

We introduce and analyze lower (Ricci) curvature bounds  ⩾ K for metric measure spaces . Our definition is based on convexity properties of the relative entropy regarded as a function on the L ₂-Wasserstein space of probability measures on the metric space . Among others, we show that  ⩾ K implies estimates for the volume growth of concentric balls. For Riemannian manifolds,  ⩾ K if and only if  ⩾ K for all . The crucial point is that our lower curvature bounds are stable under an appropriate notion of D-convergence of metric measure spaces. We define a complete and separable length metric D on the family of all isomorphism classes of normalized metric measure spaces. The metric D has a natural interpretation, based on the concept of optimal mass transportation. We also prove that the family of normalized metric measure spaces with doubling constant ⩽ C is closed under D-convergence. Moreover, the family of normalized metric measure spaces with doubling constant ⩽ C and diameter ⩽ L is compact under D-convergence.