Enhanced negative type for finite metric trees (Q924649)

The main purpose of the paper is to prove the following result (Theorem~4.16): Let \((T,d)\) be a finite metric tree. Then for all \(n\in\mathbb{N}\), all finite subsets \(\{x_1,\dots,x_n\}\subset T\), and all choices of real numbers \(\eta_1,\dots,\eta_n\) satisfying \(\eta_1+\dots+\eta_n=0\), the inequality \[ \frac{\Gamma_T}2\left(\sum_{k=1}^n| \eta_k|\right)^2+ \sum_{1\leq i,j\leq n} d(x_i,x_j)\eta_i\eta_j\leq 0 \] holds, where \(\Gamma_T=\left(\sum_{e\in E(T)}| e| ^{-1}\right)^{-1}\), \(E(T)\) is the edge set of \(T\), and \(| e| \) is the length of the edge \(e\). This result is a quantitative enhancement of a result due to \textit{P.\,Hjorth, P.\,Lisoněk, S. Markvorsen} and \textit{C.\,Thomassen} [Linear Algebra Appl.\ 270, 255--273 (1998; Zbl 0894.51003)]. Note. The statement of the main result in the paper contains unfortunate omissions, necessary corrections were made in the corrigendum [ibid.\ 255, No.\,2, 532--533 (2008; Zbl 1147.46309)]. From the main result, the authors derive that any given finite metric tree \((T,d)\) must have strict \(p\)-negative type for all \(p\) in an open interval \((1 - \zeta ,1 + \zeta )\), where \(\zeta > 0\) may be chosen so as to depend only upon the unordered distribution of edge weights that determine the path metric \(d\) on \(T\). In particular, if the edges of the tree are not weighted, then it follows that \(\zeta \) depends only upon the number of vertices in the tree. The authors give an example of an infinite metric tree that has strict 1-negative type but does not have \(p\)-negative type for any \(p > 1\).