The cone metric of a Busemann space (Q1754413)

A complete Riemannian manifold of nonpositive curvature is diffeomorphic to a Euclidean space and can be compactified by either adding equivalence classes of geodesics (the geodesic compactification) or adding horofunction functions (the horofunction compactification). One natural generalization of nonpositively curved Riemannian manifolds consists of proper CAT(0)-spaces, and both compactifications can be defined for them and they define isomorphic compactifications. Another larger generalization consists of Busemann spaces. In this case, though both compactifications can be defined, they are not necessarily isomorphic. The main result of this paper shows that given any Busemann space \((X, d)\), there is a metric \(d_c\) such that its associated horofunction compactification is isomorphic to the geodesic compactification of \((X, d)\). This metric is called the cone metric since its topology is the cone topology which defines the geodesic compactification. The cone metric \(d_c\) is not geodesic in general, and the paper shows that it is metric if and only if the space \(X\) is a real tree.