Relatively convex subsets of simply connected planar sets (Q2480570)

Let \(D\) be a subset of \(\mathbb{R}^{2}\). A subset \(K\) of \(D\) is called relatively convex with respect to \(D\) if for every two points \(x,y\in K\), \([x,y]\subset D\) implies \([x,y]\subset K.\) For \(a,b\in D\) denote by \(\rho _{D}(a,b)\) the smallest number of edges of a polygonal path in \(D\) that connect \(a\) and \(b\) . If \(D\) is polygonally connected, then \(\rho _{D}\) is a metric on \(D\). It has nice properties when \(D\) is simply connected as was shown by \textit{A. M. Bruckner} and \textit{J. B. Bruckner} in [Isr. J. Math. 2, 27--32 (1964; Zbl 0128.16402)]. The authors study other properties in the case of relatively convex sets. For example, they determine the best possible upper bound for \( \rho _{K_{1}\cap K_{2}}(a,b)\) in terms of \(\rho _{K_{1}}(a,b)\) and \(\rho _{K_{2}}(a,b)\), for \(a,b\in K_{1}\cap K_{2}\), if \(K_{1}\) and \(K_{2}\) are relatively convex. They also prove the following version of Helly's topological theorem: If \(D\) is a simply connected set in \(\mathbb{R}^{2},\) and \(\{ K_{i}:i\in I\} \) is a family of compact, polygonally connected and relatively convex in \(D\) subsets of \(D\), such that each three have a point in common, then \(\cap _{i\in I}K_{i}\neq \varnothing .\)