Absolutely minimal Lipschitz extension of tree-valued mappings (Q1938422)

Let \((X, d_X)\) and \((Z, d_Z)\) be metric spaces, let \(Y\) be a closed subset of \(X\), and let \(f\) be a mapping from \(Y\) to \(Z\). A Lipschitz mapping \(\tilde f : X \to Z\) is called an absolutely minimal Lipschitz extension (AMLE) of \(f\) if its restriction to \(Y\) coincides with \(f\), and for every open subset \({U\subset X\setminus Y}\) and every Lipschitz mapping \(h : X \to Z\) that coincides with \(\tilde f\) on \(X\setminus U\), we have \[ \text{Lip}_U(h)\geq \text{Lip}_U(\tilde f). \] Here, \(\text{Lip}_U(h)\) denotes the Lipschitz constant of \(h|_U\). The concept of AMLE was introduced by \textit{G. Aronsson} [Ark. Mat. 6, 551--561 (1967; Zbl 0158.05001)] for the special case \(X={\mathbb R}^n\) and \(Z={\mathbb R}\). Aronsson and some other authors proved the existence of AMLE, while \textit{R. Jensen} [Arch. Ration. Mech. Anal. 123, No.~1, 51--74 (1993; Zbl 0789.35008)] proved the uniqueness theorem. These results were generalized to the case when \(X\) is a length metric space (by the reviewer, P.\,Juutinen, E.\,Le\,Gruyer, Y.\,Peres, O.\,Schramm, S.\,Sheffield, D.\,Wilson). The purpose of the article under review is to initiate the study of AMLEs of mappings that are not necessarily real-valued. The authors consider the metric tree-valued case, the first nontrivial setting where existence and uniqueness theorems for AMLE can be proved. By definition, a metric tree is the one-dimensional simplicial complex associated to a finite graph-theoretical tree with arbitrary edge lengths (i.e., a finite graph-theoretical tree whose edges are present as actual intervals of arbitrary length, equipped with the graphical shortest path metric). The main result of the article is: Theorem 1. Let \(X\) be a locally compact length space and let \(T\) be a metric tree. For every closed subset \(Y\subset X\), every Lipschitz mapping \(f : Y \to T\) has a unique AMLE \(\tilde f : X \to T\). In the special case when \(T\subset\mathbb R\) is an interval, Theorem~1 was proved by \textit{Y. Peres} et al. [J. Am. Math. Soc. 22, No. 1, 167--210 (2009; Zbl 1206.91002)] without the local compactness assumption using a two-player, zero-sum stochastic game called ``Tug-of-War''. In the article under review, the authors introduce and use a more general stochastic game called ``Politics''. The authors also formulate some open questions and directions for future research.