This thesis is devoted to subriemannian optimal transportation problems. In the first part of the thesis, we consider cost functions arising from very general optimal control costs. We prove the existence and uniqueness of an optimal map between two given measures under certain regularity and growth assumptions on the Lagrangian, absolute continuity of the measures with respect to the Lebesgue class, and, most importantly, the absence of sharp abnormal minimizers. In particular, this result is applicable in the case where the cost function is square of the subriemannian distance on a subriemannian manifold with a 2-generating distribution. This unifies and generalizes the corresponding Riemannian and subriemannian results of Brenier, McCann, Ambrosio-Rigot and Bernard-Buffoni. We also establish various properties of the optimal plan when abnormal minimizers are present. The second part of the thesis is devoted to the infinite-dimensional geometry of optimal transportation on a subriemannian manifold. We start by proving the following nonholonomic version of the classical Moser theorem: given a bracket-generating distribution on a connected compact manifold (possibly with boundary), two volume forms of equal total volume can be isotoped by the flow of a vector field tangent to this distribution. Next, we describe formal solutions of the corresponding subriemannian optimal transportation problem and present the Hamiltonian framework for both the Otto calculus and its subriemannian counterpart as infinite-dimensional Hamiltonian reductions on diffeomorphism groups. Finally, we define a subriemannian analog of the Wasserstein metric on the space of densities and prove that the subriemannian heat equation defines a gradient flow on the subriemannian Wasserstein space with the potential given by the Boltzmann relative entropy functional. Measure contraction property is one of the possible generalizations of Ricci curvature bound to more general metric measure spaces. In the third part of the thesis, we discuss when a three dimensional contact subriemannian manifold satisfies such property.

This thesis is devoted to subriemannian optimal transportation problems. In the first part of the thesis, we consider cost functions arising from very general optimal control costs. We prove the existence and uniqueness of an optimal map between two given measures under certain regularity and growth assumptions on the Lagrangian, absolute continuity of the measures with respect to the Lebesgue class, and, most importantly, the absence of sharp abnormal minimizers. In particular, this result is applicable in the case where the cost function is square of the subriemannian distance on a subriemannian manifold with a 2-generating distribution. This unifies and generalizes the corresponding Riemannian and subriemannian results of Brenier, McCann, Ambrosio-Rigot and Bernard-Buffoni. We also establish various properties of the optimal plan when abnormal minimizers are present. The second part of the thesis is devoted to the infinite-dimensional geometry of optimal transportation on a subriemannian manifold. We start by proving the following nonholonomic version of the classical Moser theorem: given a bracket-generating distribution on a connected compact manifold (possibly with boundary), two volume forms of equal total volume can be isotoped by the flow of a vector field tangent to this distribution. Next, we describe formal solutions of the corresponding subriemannian optimal transportation problem and present the Hamiltonian framework for both the Otto calculus and its subriemannian counterpart as infinite-dimensional Hamiltonian reductions on diffeomorphism groups. Finally, we define a subriemannian analog of the Wasserstein metric on the space of densities and prove that the subriemannian heat equation defines a gradient flow on the subriemannian Wasserstein space with the potential given by the Boltzmann relative entropy functional. Measure contraction property is one of the possible generalizations of Ricci curvature bound to more general metric measure spaces. In the third part of the thesis, we discuss when a three dimensional contact subriemannian manifold satisfies such property.

In this article we study the geometry associated with the sub-elliptic operator ½ (X²1 +X²2), where X1 = ∂x and X2 = x²/2 ∂y are vector fields on R². We show that any point can be connected with the origin by at least one geodesic and we provide an approximate formula for the number of the geodesics between the origin and the points situated outside of the y-axis. We show there are in¯nitely many geodesics between the origin and the points on the y-axis.