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Quasihyperbolic geometry in Euclidean and Banach spaces. (English) Zbl 1237.30008

The authors consider the quasihyperbolic metric and its geodesics in domains of Banach spaces. The quasihyperbolic metric \(k(x,y)\) was introduced in \(\mathbb{R}^n\) by F. W. Gehring and B. P. Palka [J. Anal. Math. 30, 172–199 (1976; Zbl 0349.30019)] as a substitute for the hyperbolic metric. Three conjectures, concerning local uniqueness and prolongation of geodesics and convexity of quasihyperbolic balls, were posed by J. Väisälä [Ann. Acad. Sci. Fenn., Math. 34, No. 2, 447–473 (2009; Zbl 1186.30026)]. Among these conjectures the convexity conjecture is the strongest. The authors show that if \(\Omega\) is a convex domain in a Banach space, then all quasihyperbolic balls in \(\Omega\) are convex. This generalizes the corresponding result in \(\mathbb{R}^n\) [O. Martio and J. Väisälä, Pure Appl. Math. Q. 7, No. 2, 395–409 (2011; Zbl 1246.30041)]. They also show that if \(\Omega\) is starlike with respect to \(x_0\), then the quasihyperbolic balls centered at \(x_0\) are starlike. Similar results are obtained for the \(j\) metric defined as \(j(x,y) = \log (1+ |x-y|/\min(d(x),d(y))\) where \(d(x)\) denotes the distance from \(x\) to \(\partial \Omega\).

MSC:

30C65 Quasiconformal mappings in \(\mathbb{R}^n\), other generalizations
46T05 Infinite-dimensional manifolds