Characterization of Aleksandrov spaces of curvature bounded above by means of the metric Cauchy-Schwarz inequality (Q1654428)

The notion of \(K\)-quadrilateral cosine \(\cos q_{K}\) is defined as the cosine under parallel transport in a model \(K\)-space. In a \(K\)-space, \(|\cos q_{K}|\) \(\leq1\) is equivalent to the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality for tangent vectors under parallel transport. The main theorem of the paper is the following: Let \(K\neq0\) and let \((\mathcal{M},\rho)\) be a geodesically connected metric space such that \(\operatorname{diam}(\mathcal{M})\leq \pi/(2\sqrt{K})\) when \(K>0.\) Then \((\mathcal{M},\rho)\) is a \(\mathrm{CAT}(K)\) space (that is, an \(\mathfrak{R}_{K}\) domain) if and only if always \(\cos q_{K}\leq1\) or always \(\cos q_{K}\geq-1\). Furtermore, it is also proven that always \(\cos q_{K}\leq1\) is equivalent to always \(\cos q_{K}\geq-1\). The case \(K=0\) was treated by the authors in a previous paper. From the main theorem of the present paper and from the previous result concerning the case \(K=0,\) a complete solution of Gromov's curvature problem in the context of Aleksandrov spaces of curvature bounded above, is derived. The reader may find information for \textit{M. Gromov}'s curvature problem in [Metric structures for Riemannian and non-Riemannian spaces. Boston, MA: Birkhäuser (1999; Zbl 0953.53002)].