English

Metric characterizations of some subsets of the real line

Metric Geometry 2023-05-16 v1 General Topology Group Theory

Abstract

A metric space (X,d)(X,d) is called a sublinesubline if every 3-element subset TT of XX can be written as T={x,y,z}T=\{x,y,z\} for some points x,y,zx,y,z such that d(x,z)=d(x,y)+d(y,z)d(x,z)=d(x,y)+d(y,z). By a classical result of Menger, every subline of cardinality 4\ne 4 is isometric to a subspace of the real line. A subline (X,d)(X,d) is called an nn-sublinesubline for a natural number nn if for every cXc\in X and positive real number rd[X2]r\in d[X^2], the sphere S(c;r):={xX:d(x,c)=r}S(c;r):=\{x\in X:d(x,c)=r\} contains at least nn points. We prove that every 22-subline is isometric to some additive subgroup of the real line. Moreover, for every subgroup GRG\subseteq\mathbb R, a metric space (X,d)(X,d) is isometric to GG if and only if XX is a 22-subline with d[X2]=G+:=G[0,)d[X^2]=G_+:= G\cap[0,\infty). A metric space (X,d)(X,d) is called a rayray if XX is a 11-subline and XX contains a point oXo\in X such that for every rd[X2]r\in d[X^2] the sphere S(o;r)S(o;r) is a singleton. We prove that for a subgroup GQG\subseteq\mathbb Q, a metric space (X,d)(X,d) is isometric to the ray G+G_+ if and only if XX is a ray with d[X2]=G+d[X^2]=G_+. A metric space XX is isometric to the ray R+\mathbb R_+ if and only if XX is a complete ray such that Q+d[X2]\mathbb Q_+\subseteq d[X^2]. On the other hand, the real line contains a dense ray XRX\subseteq\mathbb R such that d[X2]=R+d[X^2]=\mathbb R_+.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2305.07907,
  title  = {Metric characterizations of some subsets of the real line},
  author = {Iryna Banakh and Taras Banakh and Maria Kolinko and Alex Ravsky},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2305.07907},
  year   = {2023}
}

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8 pages