Toward a quasi-Möbius characterization of invertible homogeneous metric spaces (Q2031497)

The paper under review contributes to the ongoing metric characterization of boundaries of rank-one symmetric spaces of non-compact type. These spaces posses boundaries at infinity, metric spaces equipped with visual distances. In the following a boundary of a rank-one symmetric space is abbreviated BROSS. In the present paper it is conjectured that: Conjecture 1.1. A metric space is bi-Lipschitz equivalent to some BROSS if and only if it is locally compact, connected, uniformly bi-Lipschitz homogeneous and quasi-invertible. The article presents a series of theorems that work towards resolving this conjecture. First in terms of Möbius homogenity, then coarse versions in terms of uniformly strongly quasi-Möbius homogenity, and finally two results pertaining to unbounded, proper and disconnected metric spaces are presented. The following terminology is used to state the theorems. For a set \(X\) and \(p \in X\) let \[ X_p := X \setminus \{p\} \quad\text{and}\quad \hat{X}:=X\cup\{\infty\}. \] A metric space \((X,d)\) is called \emph{invertible} if it is unbounded and admits a homeomorphism \(\tau_p:X_p\to X_p\) (called \emph{inversion at p}) such that for \(x,y \in X_p\): \[ d(\tau_p(x), \tau_p(y)) = \frac{d(x,y)}{d(x,p)d(y,p)}, \] and \(\tau_p\) admits a continuous extension to \(\infty \in \hat{X}\). Furthermore define \(\text{Inv}_p(X) := (\hat{X},i_p)\) and \(\text{Sph}_p(X):=(\hat{X},s_p)\), where \[ i_p(x,y):= \frac{d(x,y)}{d(x,p)d(y,p)},\quad i_p(x,\infty):= \frac{1}{d(x,p)}, \] \[ s_p(x,y):= \frac{d(x,y)}{(1+d(x,p))(1+d(y,p))},\quad s_p(x,\infty):= \frac{1}{1+d(x,p)}. \] \(i_p\) respectively \(s_p\) are metrics if and only if \(X\) is a Ptolemy space. Furthermore a space admits a metric inversion if and only if \(\text{Inv}_p(X)\) is isometric to \(X\). A homeomorphism \(f:X \to Y\) between (quasi-)metric spaces is called \emph{Möbius} if it preserves the cross-ratio for any quadruples \((a,b,c,d)\) of distinct points in \(X\): \[ \frac{d(f(a),f(c))d(f(b),f(d))}{d(f(a),f(d))d(f(b),f(c))} = \frac{d(a,c)d(b,d)}{d(a,d)d(b,c)}. \] The group of all Möbius self-homeomorphisms of \(X\) is denoted \(\text{Möb}(X)\). A metric space \(X\) is called \emph{\(2\)-point Möbius homogeneous} if for every two pairs \(\{x,y\}, \{a,b\}\) of distinct points in \(X\), there exists an \(f \in \text{Möb}(X)\) with \(f(x) = a\) and \(f(y) = b\). Coarse versions in the definitions (quasi-invertible, quasi-Möbius, etc.) are established by requiring only bi-Lipschitz equivalence instead of equality in the defining statements. Given a metric space \((X,d)\) and \(\alpha \in \ ]0,1]\), \((X,d^\alpha)\) is called the \emph{\(\alpha\)-snowflake of \((X,d)\)}. The main results then are: Theorem 1.2. Suppose \(X\) is an unbounded, locally compact, complete, and connected metric space. The following statements are equivalent: \begin{itemize} \item[1.] \(X\) is Möbius homeomorphic to some BROSS. \item[2.] \(X\) is isometric to some BROSS. \item[3.] \(X\) is isometrically homogeneous and invertible. \item[4.] The sphericalized space \(\text{Sph}_p(X)\) is \(2\)-point Möbius homogeneous, for some (and hence any) \(p \in X\). \end{itemize} This is similar to the main result in [\textit{S. Buyalo} and \textit{V. Schroeder}, Geom. Dedicata 172, 1--45 (2014; Zbl 1362.53061)] but in the present theorem the involution is not required to be fixed point free and does not assume the presence of a Ptolemy circle. Theorem 1.2. results in Corollary 1.3. Suppose \(X\) is an unbounded, locally compact, and connected metric space. There exists \(n \in \mathbb{N}\) and \(\alpha \in \ ]0,1]\) such that \(X\) is isometric to \((\mathbb{R}^n, |\cdot|^\alpha)\) if and only if the space \(\text{Sph}_p(X)\) is \(3\)-point Möbius homogeneous, for some/any \(p \in X\). The consequences of (\(1\)-point) Möbius homogenity are also explored: Theorem 1.4. Let \(X\) be a compact and quasi-convex metric space of finite topological dimension. If \(X\) is Möbius homogeneous, then \(X\) is bi-Lipschitz homeomorphic to a sub-Riemannian manifold. Corollary 1.5. Let \(X\) be the boundary of a CAT(\(-1\))-space. If \(X\) is Möbius homogeneous, of finite topological dimension, and connected by Möbius circles, then \(X\) is bi-Lipschitz homeomorphic to a sub-Riemannian manifold. Coarse versions of the results are then presented: Proposition 1.6. A proper and unbounded metric space \(X\) is uniformly bi-Lipschitz homogeneous and quasi-invertible if and only if, for some \(p \in X\), the quasi-sphericalized space \(\text{sph}_p(X)\) (the metric space bi-Lipschitz to \(\text{Sph}_p(X)\)) is \(2\)-point uniformly strongly quasi-Möbius homogeneous. Proposition 1.7. A homeomorphism \(f:X \to Y\) between proper and unbounded metric spaces is strongly quasi-Möbius if and only if it is bi-Lipschitz. Furthermore, \(f\) is Möbius if and only if \(f\) is a similarity. The article's main contribution towards Conjecture 1.1. is the following Theorem 1.8. If \(X\) is an unbounded locally compact metric space that is uniformly bi-Lipschitz homogeneous, quasi-invertible, and contains an non-degenerate curve, then \(X\) is path connected, locally path connected, proper, and Ahlfors regular. Furthermore, \begin{itemize} \item[1.] if in addition \(X\) contains a cut point, then \(X\) is bi-Lipschitz homeomorphic to \((\mathbb{R}, |\cdot|^\alpha)\), for some \(\alpha \in \ ]0,1]\); \item[2.] if instead \(X\) contains no cut points, then \(X\) is linearly locally connected. Moreover, \begin{itemize} \item[(a)] if in addition \(X\) contains a non-degenerate rectifiable curve, then \(X\) is annularly quasi-convex; \item[(b)] if instead all rectifiable curves in \(X\) are degenerate, then, for some \(\alpha \in \ ]0,1[\), the space \(X\) is bi-Lipschitz homeomorphic to an \(\alpha\)-snowflake. \end{itemize} \end{itemize} There is no quasi-Möbius analogue to Corollary 1.3.: Proposition 1.9. The sphericalized Heisenberg group \(\text{Sph}_e(\mathbb{H}_{\mathbb{C}}^1)\) is \(3\)-point uniformly strongly quasi-Möbius homogeneous. Equivalently, there exists \(L \geq 1\) such that, given any \(x,y \in \mathbb{H}_{\mathbb{C}}^1 \setminus \{e\}\), there exists a \((\lambda, L)\)-quasi-dilation \(f: \mathbb{H}_{\mathbb{C}}^1 \to \mathbb{H}_{\mathbb{C}}^1\) such that \(f(e) = e, f(x)=y\), and \(\lambda = \rho(e,y)/\rho(e,x)\). Results pertaining to unbounded, proper, and disconnected metric spaces are presented: Theorem 1.10. Suppose \(X\) is disconnected, unbounded, locally compact, and isometrically homogeneous. If \(X\) is invertible, then there exists \(s>1\) and a positive integer \(N \geq 2\) such that \(X\) is bi-Lipschitz homeomorphic to \((C_N, \rho_s)\). Here \(C_N\) is the parabolic visual boundary of the \((N+1)\)-regular tree equipped with the path distance with edge length \(1\). \(\rho_s\) is the parabolic visual distance with parameter \(s\). Theorem 1.11. Suppose \(X\) is a disconnected, unbounded, and locally compact metric space. There exists \(s > 1\) and a positive integer \(N \geq 2\) such that \(X\) is isometric to \((C_N, \rho_s)\) if and only if \(\hat{X}\) is \(3\)-point Möbius homogeneous. Theorem 1.12. Suppose \(X\) is a disconnected, unbounded, locally compact, and uniformly bi-Lipschitz homogeneous metric space. If \(X\) is quasi-invertible, then \(X\) is quasi-Möbius homeomorphic to \((C_2, \rho_2)\).