Blow up of balls and coverings in metric spaces (Q2518878)

The authors consider various refinements and extensions of the following `Basic Covering Theorem' in a metric space \((X,\rho):\) Let \({\mathcal F}\) be a family of closed balls \(B\) in \(X\) such that \(\sup\{\text{diam}B:B\in {\mathcal F}\}<\infty.\) Then there exists a disjoint subfamily \({\mathcal N}\) of \({\mathcal F}\) such that \(\bigcup_{B\in {\mathcal F}}B\subseteq \bigcup_{B\in {\mathcal N}}5B\) where \(5B\) denotes the ball with the same center as \(B\) but with \(5\) times its radius. The properties of the metric \(\rho\) are used to define an inclusion coefficient \(k\) of the space \(X\), which turns out to be related to the supremum of the positive numbers \(t\) such that \(\rho^t\) is a metric on \(X.\) Among other things the inclusion coefficient \(k\) can be used to characterize ultrametric spaces.