A contribution to the Aleksandrov conservative distance problem in two dimensions (Q2350010)

\textit{F. S. Beckman} and \textit{D. A. Quarles jun.} [Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 4, 810--815 (1953; Zbl 0052.18204)] showed that every transformation \(f: \mathbb{R}^n \to \mathbb{R}^n\) which preserves unit Euclidean distance in one direction is an (affine) isometry. They also noted that on \(\mathbb{R}\) or on an infinite-dimensional real Hilbert space this conclusion fails. The problem of characterizing those finite-dimensional real normed spaces \(E\) such that every transformation \(f: E \to E\) which preserves the unit distance in one direction is an isometry is called the Aleksandrov conservative distance problem; cf. [\textit{A. D. Aleksandrov}, Sov. Math., Dokl. 11, 116--120 (1970; Zbl 0213.48903); translation from Dokl. Akad. Nauk SSSR 190, 502--505 (1970)]. In the paper under review, the author presents an approach which solves the Aleksandrov problem in two dimensions for a much larger class of norms, which he calls URTC-norms. By a URTC (unique regular triangle constructibility) norm he means a norm \(\|\cdot\|\) on \(\mathbb{R}^2\) such that for every \(a, b \in \mathbb{R}^2\) with \(\|a - b\| = 1\) the equations \(\|a - x\| = 1\) and \(\|b - x\| = 1\) are satisfied exactly for two points \(x \in \mathbb{R}^2\). For example, any strictly convex norm on \(\mathbb{R}^2\) is a URTC-norm.