Minimum spanning paths and Hausdorff distance in finite ultrametric spaces (Q2152004)

The correspondence between ultrametric spaces and trees is well-known. The problem of finding a minimum spanning tree of a weighted graph has been well studied for different algorithms. A simple algorithm which produces minimum spanning paths in the case of finite ultrametric spaces was proposed by \textit{E. Diday} [COMPSTAT 1982, 5th Symp., Toulouse 1982, Part I: Proc. comput. stat., 186--191 (1982; Zbl 0493.62055)]. The author analyses the work of this algorithm on representing trees, and a question how to distinguish the set of balls in a finite ultrametric space using only any minimum spanning path of this space is considered. Using minimum spanning paths the author gives a set of criteria which guarantee that a finite ultrametric space belongs to some special class. Certain explicit formulas have been found for the Hausdorff distance between any two distinct balls of a finite ultrametric space by some scholars. The present author generalizes these results by giving an explicit formula for the Hausdorff distance between arbitrary subsets of a finite ultrametric space.