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Is there a complete metric space $X$ with the following property?

For any pair of points $p,q\in X$ there is unique minimizing geodesic $[pq]_X$ that connects $p$ to $q$, but the map $(p,q)\mapsto [pq]_X$ is not continous.

Comments

  • For sure such space cannot be compact (or proper).

  • If we fix one end $p$, then there is a classical example --- the wheel; it is a unit circle with continuum of spikes from to the center $p$ to each point on the circle.

  • An example of noncomplete space with this property can be constructed by starting with a long circle and applying the following construction countably many times: Given a geodesic space $X$ construct a space $X'$ where to each pair of points $p,q\in X$ such that $|p-q|_X>1$ we add a unit segment with ends in $p$ and $q$.

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    $\begingroup$ This is a nice question. But are not you the most qualified MO user to answer it? $\endgroup$
    – user6976
    Commented Mar 27, 2020 at 17:49
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    $\begingroup$ This question was asked at MSE: math.stackexchange.com/questions/482311/…, but the discussion was inconclusive. $\endgroup$ Commented Mar 28, 2020 at 3:19

1 Answer 1

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Yes, such examples do live. The following answer was given in "Metric spaces of non-positive curvature" by Bridson and Haefliger; thanks to GGT and Moishe Kohan.

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