Area of ideal triangles and Gromov hyperbolicity in Hilbert geometry (Q1022577)

The authors show, in the context of Hilbert geometry, the equivalence between the existence of an upper bound on the area of ideal triangles and the Gromov-hyperbolicity. A Hilbert geometry \((C,d_C)\) is a nonempty bounded open convex set \(C\) in \(\mathbb{R}^n\) endowed with a Hilbert distance \(d_C\). This metric space induces a Finsler metric \(F_C\) such that the Hilbert distance \(d_C\) coincides with the length distance of the Finslerian norm \(F_C\). This leads to the concrete construction of a Borel measure on \(C\), which is in fact the Hausdorff measure of the metric space \((C,d_C)\). Using this setting the authors are able to give an intrinsic condition equivalent to the Gromov-hyperbolicity in terms of the area of the ideal triangles of \((C,d_C)\). An ideal triangle \(T\subset C\) is the affine convex hull of three points \(a,b,c\in\partial C\) not on a line, and such that \(T\cap\partial C=a\cup b\cup c\), and its area is the area for the Hilbert measure. The main result of the paper is Theorem 1: A Hilbert geometry is hyperbolic in the sense of Gromov if and only if there is a bound on the area of ideal triangles. The paper is very interesting not only for the result itself (Theorem 1), but also for showing that Finsler metrics can appear in a very natural way in the geometry of metric spaces, and that they can be very useful tools. It is possible that a similar approach for other types of metric spaces could lead to interesting results.