A Riemannian viewpoint on the Amari-Cencov $α$-connections and Proudman-Johnson equations

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Bauer, Martin, Brigant, Alice Le, Maor, Cy
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Bauer, Martin
Brigant, Alice Le
Maor, Cy
author_facet Bauer, Martin
Brigant, Alice Le
Maor, Cy
contents We give a new geometric interpretation of the Amari-Cencov $α$-connections $\nabla^{(α)}$ from information geometry: On the space of densities $\operatorname{Dens}_+(M)$, we show that there exist Riemannian metrics $G^α$, which we call $α$-Fisher-Rao metrics, whose Levi-Civita connections are $\nabla^{(α)}$. With the exception of $α=0$ (the Fisher-Rao metric), these metrics are non-invariant to the action of the diffeomorphism group $\operatorname{Diff}(M)$, even though the connections are invariant. This gives a new way of interpreting the geodesics of the $\nabla^{(α)}$ as energy-minimizing curves. On the space of probability densities $\operatorname{Prob}(M)$, we show that the same phenomenon holds for $α\in \{-1,0,1\}$ and that the $α$-connections are not metric otherwise. We show that $\nabla^{(α)}$-geodesics on this space can be interpreted as radial projections of straight lines on appropriate hyper-surfaces, and use this geometric picture to obtain geodesic convexity for any $α\in \mathbb{R}$. In addition, we prove analogous results for appropriate metrics and connections on $\operatorname{Diff}(M)$, which, for the case $M=\mathbb{R}$, imply that the generalized Proudman-Johnson equations on the real line are the Euler-Arnold equations of non-right invariant metrics. Finally, in the finite-dimensional case, we show that $\nabla^{(α)}$ can be metric or non-metric depending on the considered statistical model.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2508_00371
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle A Riemannian viewpoint on the Amari-Cencov $α$-connections and Proudman-Johnson equations
Bauer, Martin
Brigant, Alice Le
Maor, Cy
Differential Geometry
We give a new geometric interpretation of the Amari-Cencov $α$-connections $\nabla^{(α)}$ from information geometry: On the space of densities $\operatorname{Dens}_+(M)$, we show that there exist Riemannian metrics $G^α$, which we call $α$-Fisher-Rao metrics, whose Levi-Civita connections are $\nabla^{(α)}$. With the exception of $α=0$ (the Fisher-Rao metric), these metrics are non-invariant to the action of the diffeomorphism group $\operatorname{Diff}(M)$, even though the connections are invariant. This gives a new way of interpreting the geodesics of the $\nabla^{(α)}$ as energy-minimizing curves. On the space of probability densities $\operatorname{Prob}(M)$, we show that the same phenomenon holds for $α\in \{-1,0,1\}$ and that the $α$-connections are not metric otherwise. We show that $\nabla^{(α)}$-geodesics on this space can be interpreted as radial projections of straight lines on appropriate hyper-surfaces, and use this geometric picture to obtain geodesic convexity for any $α\in \mathbb{R}$. In addition, we prove analogous results for appropriate metrics and connections on $\operatorname{Diff}(M)$, which, for the case $M=\mathbb{R}$, imply that the generalized Proudman-Johnson equations on the real line are the Euler-Arnold equations of non-right invariant metrics. Finally, in the finite-dimensional case, we show that $\nabla^{(α)}$ can be metric or non-metric depending on the considered statistical model.
title A Riemannian viewpoint on the Amari-Cencov $α$-connections and Proudman-Johnson equations
topic Differential Geometry
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.00371