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ROUNDNESS PROPERTIES OF ULTRAMETRIC SPACES

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 August 2013

TIMOTHY FAVER ,
KATELYNN KOCHALSKI ,
MATHAV KISHORE MURUGAN ,
HEIDI VERHEGGEN ,
ELIZABETH WESSON  and
ANTHONY WESTON
TIMOTHY FAVER
Affiliation:
Department of Mathematics, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA e-mail: tef@drexel.edu
KATELYNN KOCHALSKI
Affiliation:
Department of Mathematics, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22904, USA e-mail: kdk7rn@virginia.edu
MATHAV KISHORE MURUGAN
Affiliation:
Center for Applied Mathematics, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA email: mkm233@cornell.edu
HEIDI VERHEGGEN
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA e-mail: hv59@cornell.edu
ELIZABETH WESSON
Affiliation:
Center for Applied Mathematics, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA e-mail: enw27@cornell.edu
ANTHONY WESTON
Affiliation:
Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Canisius College, Buffalo, NY 14208, USAwestona@canisius.edu Department of Decision Sciences, University of South Africa, PO Box 392, UNISA 0003, South Africawestoar@unisa.ac.za
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Abstract

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Motivated by a classical theorem of Schoenberg, we prove that an n + 1 point finite metric space has strict 2-negative type if and only if it can be isometrically embedded in the Euclidean space $\mathbb{R}^{n}$ of dimension n but it cannot be isometrically embedded in any Euclidean space $\mathbb{R}^{r}$ of dimension r < n. We use this result as a technical tool to study ‘roundness’ properties of additive metrics with a particular focus on ultrametrics and leaf metrics. The following conditions are shown to be equivalent for a metric space (X,d): (1) X is ultrametric, (2) X has infinite roundness, (3) X has infinite generalized roundness, (4) X has strict p-negative type for all p ≥ 0 and (5) X admits no p-polygonal equality for any p ≥ 0. As all ultrametric spaces have strict 2-negative type by (4) we thus obtain a short new proof of Lemin's theorem: Every finite ultrametric space is isometrically embeddable into some Euclidean space as an affinely independent set. Motivated by a question of Lemin, Shkarin introduced the class $\mathcal{M}$ of all finite metric spaces that may be isometrically embedded into ℓ2 as an affinely independent set. The results of this paper show that Shkarin's class $\mathcal{M}$ consists of all finite metric spaces of strict 2-negative type. We also note that it is possible to construct an additive metric space whose generalized roundness is exactly ℘ for each ℘ ∈ [1, ∞].

Keywords

54E4046C0551K05
Type
Research Article
Information
Glasgow Mathematical Journal , Volume 56 , Issue 3 , September 2014 , pp. 519 - 535
Copyright
Copyright © Glasgow Mathematical Journal Trust 2013 

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