Radon-Nikodým property and thick families of geodesics (Q2257761)

Let \((M,d)\) be a metric space and \(u,v \in M\). A \(uv\)-geodesic is a distance-preserving map \(g:[0,d(u,v)]\to M\) such that \(g(0)=u\) and \(g(d(u,v))=v\). A family \(T\) of \(uv\)-geodesics is called thick if there is \(a>0\) such that for all \(g\) in \(T\) and points \(r_1,r_2\dots,r_n\) in the image of \(g\) there is another \(uv\)-geodesic \(\tilde g\) which also passes through \(r_1,r_2\dots,r_n\) and there is a finite collection of common points of \(g\) and \(\tilde g\) which contains \(r_1,r_2\dots,r_n\) and is such that the sum of maximal deviations of the geodesics between these common points is at least \(a\). The author shows the following result (Theorem 1.2): If the Banach space \(X\) fails the Radon-Nikodým property (RNP), then there is a metric space \(M\) containing a thick family \(T\) of geodesics which admits a bilipschitz embedding into \(X\). Combined with previous results of the same author, the following nice characterization of RNP is obtained (Corollary 1.5): A Banach space \(X\) fails the RNP iff it admits a bilipschitz embedding of some thick family of geodesics. The proof of Theorem 1.2 uses the fact that \(X\) fails RNP iff \(X\) contains a bounded \(\varepsilon\)-bush. The author shows that under an equivalent norm, the bush can be taken to live in the unit sphere of \(X\). The thick family of geodesics is constructed using set limits of certain broken lines corresponding to vertices of the \(\varepsilon\)-bush.