Finite spaces pretangent to metric spaces at infinity (Q2011282)

Let \(X\) be an unbounded metric space, and let \(\tilde{r}\) be a sequence of positive real numbers tending to infinity. The authors define the pretangent space \(\Omega^X_{\infty,\tilde{r}}\) to \(X\) at infinity as a metric space whose points are the equivalence classes of sequences \(\tilde{x}\subset X\) which tend to infinity with the rate \(\tilde{r}\). Conditions are provided under which all spaces pretangent to a given metric space are finite. Among other things, it is also shown that all pretangent spaces are complete and, for every finite metric space \(Y,\) there is an unbounded metric space \(X\) such that \(Y\) and \(\Omega^X_{\infty,\tilde{r}}\) are isometric for some \(\tilde{r}\).