Questions tagged [metric-spaces]
A metric space is a pair $(X,d)$, where $X$ is a set and $d:X \times X \to \mathbb{R}$ satisfies the following conditions for all $x,y,z \in X$. (Symmetry) $d(x,y)=d(y,x)$. (Identity of Indiscernibles) $d(x,y)=0$ if and only if $x=y$. (Triangle Inequality) $d(x,y)+d(y,z) \geq d(x,z)$.
442 questions
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Is the space of Radon measures a Polish space or at least separable?
Background: I work on a SPDE problem where in order to apply Prokhorov's theorem I need that some measure space is Polish space. And additionaly it would be good if that space is Banach space. Earlier ...
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On the Large Cardinal Strength of Normal Moore Space Conjecture
In his seminal 1937 paper, Jones [1] proved the following result about Moore spaces:
Theorem. (Jones) If $2^{\aleph_0}<2^{\aleph_1}$ then all separable normal Moore spaces are metrizable.
Then ...
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Is it possible to prove that any two points of a convex complete metric space are connected by some metric segment without the axiom of choice?
We say that a point $m$ is between points $p$ and $q$ of a metric space $(M, d)$ if $d(p, q) = d(p, m) + d(m, q)$ and $p ≠ m ≠ q$.
A metric space $M$ is said to be metrically convex if given any two ...
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When is "metric dimension" well defined?
A subset $B$ of a metric space $(M,d)$ is called a metric generating set if and only if $$[\forall b \in B, d(x,b)=d(y,b)] \implies x = y \,. $$ A metric generating set $B$ is called a metric basis ...
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What makes a distance?
In the answers to my previous question, I learned that there are different concepts of distance, that is of distance-like functions with the usual metric being only the most popular and important one.
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Differentiability of distance to a closed convex set [closed]
Let $( \mathbb{R}^d, \| \mathbf{x}\|_2 )$ be a Euclidean Space. For any nonempty closed convex set $A\subseteq \mathbb{R}^d$, we define
\begin{align}
d(\mathbf{x}, A) = \inf \{ \| \mathbf{x} - \mathbf{...
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Continuously varying norms
Let $V$ be a finite-dimensional real vector space with its Euclidean topology. Then all norms on $V$ are equivalent and consequently given two norms $\lVert-\rVert$, $\lVert-\rVert'$, the number
$$
d =...
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What do category theorists know about "probabilistic metric spaces"?
I recently stumbled upon the notion of probabilistic metric space as a generalization of Lawvere's metric spaces, and I am very interested in understanding it deeper.
In short, instead of a distance $...
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Category of metric spaces
Is there a standard/good reference text that does category of metric spaces?
Say, it seems that by looking at this category one can recover everything about particular metric space up to scaling --- ...
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Uniform density of Lipschitz maps is space of continuous function — for general metric spaces
Let $X$ and $Y$ be metric space, $X$ be compact, $C(X,Y)$ denote the set of continuous functions from $X$ to $Y$ with uniform convergence on compacts topology, and $\operatorname{Lip}(X,Y)$ denote the ...
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BCT equivalent to DC
Do you know where I can find proof of equivalence Baire Category Theorem and DC (Axiom of Dependent Choice)? It is well known fact but I can't find appropriate literature with the proof.
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Axiom of Choice and continuous functions
Do you know if the following statement is an equivalent form of the axiom of choice or not?
If $X$ is a compact metric space, then every continuous function $f: X \longrightarrow \mathbb{R}$ is ...
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Are all homogeneous metric spaces bihomogeneous?
Let (X,d) be a metric space such that for all points p and q in X, there exists an isometry f such that f(p) = q. Does it follow that for all points p and q in X, there exists an isometry f such that ...
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Spaces with a quasi triangle inequality
How do you call a space with a function which is symmetric, non negative, positive definite and which satisfies a quasi-triangle inequality:
$d(x,z) \leq C( d(x,y)+d(y,z) )$
for all $x,y,z$ and some ...
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Does the topology induced by the Hausdorff-metric and the quotient topology coincide?
Assume that $X$ is a metric space, and $\sim$ is an equivalence relation on $X$.
Furthermore we assume that the number of elements in each equivalence class
is bounded by a positive constant.
Does ...
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End point compactification for metric spaces
Freundenthal introduced ends of topological spaces and the end point compactification of locally compact topological spaces adding one point for each end of the topological space (see here).
For ...
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What should a meaningful notion of curvature satisfy, in the absence of a smooth structure?
There are many generalizations of various curvatures to non-smooth metric spaces (e.g. Ollivier's Ricci curvature). Suppose I have a metric space $(X,d)$ and I want to define a notion of curvature ...
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Intersection of nested open ball in complete metric spaces is nonempty?
My question is that whether the following statement is true or not.
In a complete metric space $(X, d)$, if a sequence of open balls $\{B(x_i, r_i)\}_{i=1}^\infty$ satisfies
$$
\exists \epsilon > ...
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Hausdorff distance and Cauchy sequences
This is a generalization of an older question.
Let $(X,d)$ be a metric space and let $(A_n)_{n\in\mathbb{N}}\subseteq X$ be a sequence of non-empty closed subsets such that for all $\varepsilon > ...
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Whitney's approximation theorem for Lipschitz manifolds
In the smooth setting, Whitney's approximation theorem says the following: If $M,N$ are smooth manifolds and $f,g:M\to N$ are smooth functions that are continuously homotopic (ie there is a continuous ...
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Is there an $\infty$ version of the Wasserstein distance between two distributions?
If I have two probability distributions $\mu$ and $\nu$ defined on $X$ and $Y$ respectively, then the $p$-th Wasserstein distance between the two of them is defined as $$W_p(\mu,\nu) = \left(\inf_{\pi\...
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What does the space induced by this unusual metric(?) on R/Z look like?
The motivation for this question comes from music theory. Dmitri
Tymoczko models "good" voice leading as minimizing distance between
pitches in successive chords. While this theory works well for ...
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Gromov-Hausdorff convergence for non-compact metric spaces
Let $(X_i,p_i)$, $(X,p)$ be pointed connected proper metric spaces (i.e. the closures of balls are compact). Are the following two statements equivalent?
$\forall r > 0: \bar{B}_r(p_i) \stackrel{...
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Topological characterization of injective metric spaces
Let $\ (X\ d)\ \,(Y\ \delta)\ $ be arbitrary metric spaces. A function $\ f:X\rightarrow Y\ $ is called a metric map (with respect to the given metrics $\ d\ \delta$) $\ \Leftarrow:\Rightarrow\ \...
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Do the $\ell^{\infty}$ and $\ell^1$ norms yield minimal doubling constants amongst all norms on $\mathbb{R}^n$?
Setting:
Let $X:=\mathbb{R}^n$ for some positive integer $n$. For each $1\le p\le \infty$ let $d_p$ denote the metric induced by the $\ell^p_n$ norm thereon.
Note that, the doubling constant of a ...
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Universally meager spaces and large cardinals
Definition: (Todorcevic) A subset $A$ of a topological space $X$ is called universally meager if for every Baire space $Y$ and every continuous $f : Y \to X$ which is nowhere constant (not constant on ...
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Construct a topologically $\infty$-dimensional separable metric space.
But don't assume knowledge of any topological dimension theory. Here is a specific approach (an open problem):
Does there exist a separable metric space $X$ such that the following two conditions ...
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Totally bounded spaces and axiom of choice
Wikipedia article on totally bounded spaces states "... the completion of a totally bounded space might not be compact in the absence of choice." Where is the axiom of choice used, and do you need it ...
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The Schwartz space is not normable
The Schwartz space of rapidly decreasing function (as well as their derivatives) on $\mathbb R^n$ is a Fréchet space, whose (metric complete) topology is given by the usual countable family of semi-...
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When is a metric space a snowflake?
Let $(X,d)$ be a metric space. For any $0<\epsilon<1$, we call the metric space $(X,d^{\epsilon})$; where $d^{\epsilon}(x,y)\triangleq (d(x,y))^{\epsilon}$ the $\epsilon$-snowflake of $(X,d)$.
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Does there exist a countable metric space which is Lipschitz universal for all countable metric spaces?
Is there a countable metric space $U$ such that any countable metric space is bi-Lipschitz equivalent to a subset of $U$? How about $c_{00}(\mathbb{Q})$ where $\mathbb{Q}$ is the rational numbers? ...
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Equivalent metrics on Fréchet spaces and Lipschitz maps
Lipschitz maps are defined over metric space as maps $f:(X,d_X) \to (Y,d_Y)$ such that
$$ d\left( f(x),f(x^\prime) \right)_Y \le k d(x,x^\prime)_X \ \forall x,x^\prime \in X, $$
where $k$ is a ...
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Hyperbolic space embeds into Wasserstein space
Fix a positive integer $n$, let $\mathbb{H}^n$ be the $n$-dimensional hyperbolic space, $r>0$, $x\in \mathbb{H}^n$ and consider the closed (compact) geodesic ball $B_{\mathbb{H}^n}(x,r)$. Are ...
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The space of analytic associative operations
This question is a follow-up to this old one of mine.
Let $\mathcal{A}$ be the set of functions $\star:\mathbb{R}^2\rightarrow\mathbb{R}$ which are associative and $C^\omega$ (real analytic entire) in ...
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A locally compact, complete metric space in which the closure of open balls coincide with the closed ball is Heine-Borel
I saw the following result stated without a proof in a paper about the isometry group of metric measure spaces:
Let $X$ be a locally compact, complete metric space such that for all $x \in X$ and $R &...
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Composition of couplings as a pullback construction
A metric measure space $(X,d,\mu)$ consists of a metric space $(X,d)$ together with a Borel measure $\mu$. A coupling between metric measure spaces $(X_1,d_1,\mu_1)$ and $(X_2,d_2,\mu_2)$ consists of ...
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Rough classification of Peano Curves
By Peano curve I mean a continuous map from the unit interval that fills the unit square in $\mathbb R^2$.
In the paper:
Shchepin, E. V.; Bauman, K. E., Minimal Peano curve, Proc. Steklov Inst. Math....
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Results that are easier in a metric space
Are there any significant results in the theory of metric spaces that (are considerably more difficult to reproduce/have not been reproduced) in the theory of uniform spaces?
In particular, I'm ...
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Choice and the Baire property in non-separable complete metric spaces
It's known to be consistent with ZF+DC that every subset of $\mathbb{R}$ has the Baire property (BP). (E.g. Shelah's model). If so, then every subset of every complete separable metric space has ...
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Sources for Alexandrov surfaces
There are two distinct notions in differential geometry associated
with A. D. Alexandrov: (1) Alexandrov spaces of courvature bounded
from below; (2) Alexandrov surfaces of bounded total curvature (...
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Can every set of points with rational distance squares be isometrically embedded in $\Bbb Q^d$?
Suppose we are given a finite family of points $p_1,...,p_n\in \Bbb R^d$, so that any two points have a rational distance square, that is,
$$\|p_i-p_j\|^2\in\Bbb Q,\quad\text{for all $i,j\in\{1,...,n\}...
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Lipschitz mappings, covering dimension
Is there a compact metric space $X$ of covering dimension $2$ without a Lipschitz surjection on $[0,1]^2$?
For a space $X$ with Hausdorff dimension greater than $2$, we have a negative answer (see ...
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Trasportation metric (AKA Earth-Mover's, Wasserstein, etc.) as "natural" / "induced"?
Context: Given a discrete finite metric space $X$ (in my case X={0,1}$^n$ with the Hamming/L$_1$ distance), I need to define the natural or canonical metric on the set of all probability distributions ...
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Relationship between doubling constant of a metric space and of a metric measure space
Let $(X,d,m)$ be a metric measure space. We say that it is doubling in the sense of metric spaces if for every:
$x\in X$ and every $r>0$ there exists some (metric) doubling constant $C_d\geq 0$ ...
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Unbounded metrics on groups
If $G$ is an infinite group, is there necessarily an unbounded left-invariant metric on $G$?
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Is the statement that every convex complete metric space has midpoints equivalent to the axiom of dependent choice (DC)?
We say that a point $m$ is between points $p$ and $q$ of a metric space $(M, d)$ if $d(p, q) = d(p, m) + d(m, q)$ and $p ≠ m ≠ q$. Furthermore, if the equality $d(p, m) = d(m, q)$ holds for $m$, we ...
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Is the separability of the space needed in the proof of the Prohorov's theorem?
The Section 5 of the book:
Billingsley, P., Convergence of Probability Measures, 1999,
studies Prohorov's theorem. A short reminder is given below.
Let $\Pi$ be a family of probability measures on ...
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Analogy between metric space completion and algebraic closure
I've noticed some similarities between the story of completing a metric space and taking algebraic closure of a field. My question is whether these two stories can be generalized.
Metric space
Fix a ...
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Joint measurability of metric
I am trying to understand in which metric spaces the metric is jointly measurable.
There exist a metric space $(X,d)$ for which the Borel $\sigma$-algebra, does not coincide with the product Borel $\...
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Spaces that can't be embedded in the plane
If $X$ and $Y$ are topological spaces, let us write $X \preceq Y$ whenever $X$ embeds in $Y$.
Earlier today, I asked the question:
Is this a well-quasi-order on the completely metrizable spaces?
...
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