English

Hausdorff vs Gromov-Hausdorff distances

Metric Geometry 2025-02-13 v5 Algebraic Topology

Abstract

Let MM be a closed Riemannian manifold and let XMX\subseteq M. If the sample XX is sufficiently dense relative to the curvature of MM, then the Gromov-Hausdorff distance between XX and MM is bounded from below by half their Hausdorff distance, namely dGH(X,M)12dH(X,M)d_{GH}(X,M) \ge \frac{1}{2} d_H(X,M). The constant 12\frac{1}{2} can be improved depending on the dimension and curvature of the manifold MM, and obtains the optimal value 11 in the case of the unit circle, meaning that if XS1X\subseteq S^1 satisfies dGH(X,S1)<π6d_{GH}(X,S^1)<\tfrac{\pi}{6}, then dGH(X,S1)=dH(X,S1)d_{GH}(X,S^1)=d_H(X,S^1). We also provide versions lower bounding the Gromov-Hausdorff distance dGH(X,Y)d_{GH}(X,Y) between two subsets X,YMX,Y\subseteq M. Our proofs convert discontinuous functions between metric spaces into simplicial maps between \v{C}ech or Vietoris-Rips complexes. We then produce topological obstructions to the existence of certain maps using the nerve lemma and the fundamental class of the manifold, thus lower bounding the Gromov-Hausdorff distance.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2309.16648,
  title  = {Hausdorff vs Gromov-Hausdorff distances},
  author = {Henry Adams and Florian Frick and Sushovan Majhi and Nicholas McBride},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2309.16648},
  year   = {2025}
}