Space of minimal discs and its compactification (Q1995595)

This paper is concerned with a compactness result about the set of certain metric spaces obtained by reparametrizing the solutions of Plateau's problem in metric spaces with quadratic isoperimetric inequalities. These spaces generalize the intrinsic metrics on discs that are solutions of Plateau's problem in a complete Riemannian manifold with bounded geometry. Let \(L\) and \(C\) be positive real constants. Call a geodesic metric space \(Z\) a geodesic \((L,C)\)-disc retract if there is a closed Lipschitz curve \(\gamma: S^1 \to Z\) with \(\ell(\gamma)\leqslant L\) such that the mapping cylinder \(Z_\gamma\) is a topological disc, and \(\mathcal H^2(U) \leqslant C \ell(\partial U)^2\) for every Jordan domain \(U \subseteq Z\). Denote by \(\mathcal E(L,C)\) the set of geodesic disc retracts, and \(\mathcal D(L,C)\) the subset of true geodesic metric disks. The main result in the article under review is the following (Theorem 1.1): \[ \overline{\mathcal D(L,C)} \subset \mathcal E(L,C) \subset \overline{\mathcal D(L,C+1/(2\pi))} \] where the closure is taken with respect to the Gromov-Hausdorff topology on the space of compact separable metric spaces [\textit{M. Gromov}, Metric structures for Riemannian and non-Riemannian spaces. Boston, MA: Birkhäuser (1999; Zbl 0953.53002)]. The proof uses the results in [\textit{A. Lytchak} and \textit{S. Wenger}, Geom. Topol. 22, No. 1, 591--644 (2018; Zbl 1378.49047)] and [\textit{A. Petrunin} and \textit{S. Stadler}, Geom. Topol. 23, No. 6, 3111--3139 (2019; Zbl 1429.53060)] in an essential way.