Gromov hyperbolicity, John spaces, and quasihyperbolic geodesics (Q2154910)

Assume that \((D, d)\) is a locally compact, rectifiably connected and noncomplete metric space. For a constant \(a\geq 1\), the space \(D\) is called an \(a\)-John domain if each pair of points \(x, y\in D\) can be joined by a rectifiable arc \(\alpha\) in \(D\) such that for all \(z\in \alpha\), \[ \min\big\{\text{length }(\alpha[x,z]),\text{length }(\alpha[z,y])\leq ad(z)\big\}. \] The arc \(\alpha\) is called a double \(a\)-cone arc. In this paper, the authors focus on the geometric properties of quasihyperbolic geodesics in John metric spaces. There is a question whether or not each quasihyperbolic geodesic in a John domain is a double cone arc. \textit{F. W. Gehring} et al. [Math. Scand. 65, No. 1, 75--92 (1989; Zbl 0702.30007)] had already considered this question in Euclidean John domains. The answer to this question is negative in general. There is a positive answer in the case of simply connected plane John domains. This raises the natural problem of determining necessary and sufficient conditions for quasihyperbolic geodesics in a John space to be double cone arcs. Various authors have contributed to this line of work. For example, \textit{J. Heinonen} [Rev. Mat. Iberoam. 5, No. 3-4, 97--123 (1989; Zbl 0712.30017)] posed the question of whether or not an \(a\)-John domain in \(\mathbb{R}^{n}\), which is quasiconformally equivalent to the unit ball, has the property that every quasihyperbolic geodesic is a double cone arc. Using the conformal modulus of path families and Ahlfors \(n\)-regularity of \(n\)-dimensional Hausdorff measure of \(\mathbb{R}^{n}\) , \textit{M. Bonk} et al. [Uniformizing Gromov hyperbolic spaces. Paris: Société Mathématique de France (2001; Zbl 0970.30010)] gave an affirmative answer for bounded domains with a constant depending on the space dimension \(n\). In particular, they proved that every quasihyperbolic geodesic in a bounded Gromov hyperbolic John domain in \(\mathbb{R}^{n}\) is a double cone arc. In this paper, the authors show that every quasihyperbolic geodesic in a John space admitting a roughly starlike Gromov hyperbolic quasihyperbolization is a double cone arc. This result provides a new approach to the elementary metric geometry question, formulated by Heinonen [loc. cit] and which has been studied by Gehring et al. [loc. cit.]. Also the authors obtain a simple geometric condition connecting uniformity of a metric space with the existence of a Gromov hyperbolic quasihyperbolization.