A metric characterization of compact plane retracts and applications (Q1065381)

Let M be a compact subset of \(R^ 2\). Denote the Euclidean metric on \(R^ 2\) by d. Let \(\rho\) be a metric on \(R^ 2\) topologically equivalent to d. Consider the function \(V_{\rho}: R^ 2\to R^+\) defined as \(V_{\rho}(x)=\rho (x,M)\). \(V_{\rho}\) is a continuous function on \(R^ 2\) for which (i) \(V_{\rho}(x)=0\), for \(x\in M\); (ii) \(V_{\rho}>0\) for \(x\in R^ 2\setminus M\) and (iii) for any sequence \(\{x_ n\}\subset R^ 2\), \(V_{\rho}(x_ n)\to 0\) implies \(d(x_ n,M)\to 0\). The author proves the following theorems. Suppose that M is a compact retract of \(R^ 2\). Given a continuous function \(V: R^ 2\to R^+\) satisfying (i)-(iii), there exists a new metric \(\rho =\rho (V)\) on \(R^ 2\) topologically equivalent to d such that \(\rho |_ M=d|_ M\) and \(V=V_{\rho}\). Suppose that M is a compact subset of \(R^ 2\) with the properties that for each continuous function \(V: R^ 2\to R^+\) satisfying (i)-(iii), there exists a new metric \(\rho =\rho (V)\) on \(R^ 2\) topologically equivalent to d, such that \(\rho |_ M=d|_ M\) and, in addition, \(V=V_{\rho}\). Then M is a retract of \(R^ 2\).