Lipschitz and path isometric embeddings of metric spaces (Q376273): Difference between revisions

The author extends Nash's \(C^1\) embedding theorem [\textit{J. Nash}, Ann. Math. (2) 60, 383--396 (1954; Zbl 0058.37703)] from Riemannian to sub-Riemannian manifolds. More precisely, every sub-Riemannian manifold \(M\) admits a topological embedding \(f\) into a Euclidean space such that for every curve \(\gamma\) in \(M\), the lengths of \(f\circ \gamma\) and \(\gamma\) are equal. Furthermore, this embedding result (Theorem 2.4) applies to all metric manifolds \((M,d)\) such that the distance function \(d\) is the increasing limit of distance functions \(d_k\) induced by Riemannian metrics \(g_k\) on \(M\). The sub-Riemannian manifolds are the most prominent examples of such a metric structure. The embedding of \((M,d)\) is obtained as a limit of embeddings of Riemannian manifolds \((M,d_k)\), while taking care to preserve injectivity in the limit. Additionally, the author proves that every compact metric space \(X\) of Hausdorff dimension \(k\) can be embedded into \(\mathbb R^{2k+1}\) by a Lipschitz map. The inverse of such an embedding, while continuous, is in general not Lipschitz continuous, since \(X\) may lack a bi-Lipschitz embedding into a Euclidean space.