Computing the cut locus of a Riemannian manifold via optimal transport

In this paper, we give a new characterization of the cut locus of a point on a compact Riemannian manifold as the zero set of the optimal transport density solution of the Monge–Kantorovich equations, a PDE formulation of the optimal transport problem with cost equal to the geodesic distance. Combining this result with an optimal transport numerical solver, based on the so-called dynamical Monge–Kantorovich approach, we propose a novel framework for the numerical approximation of the cut locus of a point in a manifold. We show the applicability of the proposed method on a few examples settled on 2d-surfaces embedded in R3, and discuss advantages and limitations.