Metric-measure boundary and geodesic flow on Alexandrov spaces (Q2659430)

On (non-smooth) Alexandrov spaces, this paper proves existence of infinite geodesics in abundance, and properties of geodesic flows. Theorem 1.1 and 1.6 say that if \(X\) is an Alexandrov space with vanishing metric-measure boundary, or if \(X\) is the boundary of a convex body in \(\mathbb{R}^{n+1}\), then infinite geodesic exists starting from almost every direction in the tangent bundle, and the geodesic flow preserves the Liouville measure. Theorem 1.8 provides, in two cases, a criterion for vanishing of metric-measure boundary. Namely, convex hyper-surfaces in Euclidean spaces and two-dimensional Alexandrov surfaces without (topological) boundary have vanishing metric-measure boundary. The authors indicates that one motivation for the paper is to prove the Liouville theorem for the ``quasi-geodesic flow'' on Alexandrov spaces. The metric-measure boundary defined by the authors is a certain signed Radon measure on \(X\). It can be understood as the first coefficient in the Taylor expansion of the deviation measure defined by the average volume/volume ratios of small balls. The results in the paper establish a relation between this coefficient and the geodesic flow. In the proof of the main theorems, the authors establish a series of results including Proposition 6.1 that bounds the derivation measure of Borel sets under the bi-Lipschitz condition. Decomposition of the space into regular and singular parts, quantitative estimate of the size of the singularities, estimates for the metric-measure curvature, comparison results for measures, Perelman's DC-coordinates etc are applied in the proof. The analytic tools developed in this paper are tied to integral geometry. Long geodesics on surfaces have been previously investigated by \textit{T. Zamfirescu} [Invent. Math. 69, 253--257 (1982; Zbl 0494.52004); Math. Ann. 293, No. 1, 109--114 (1992; Zbl 0735.53032)]. Geodesic flows on singular spaces are previously investigative by \textit{W. Ballmann} and \textit{M. Brin} [Publ. Math., Inst. Hautes Étud. Sci. 82, 169--209 (1995; Zbl 0866.53029)], and \textit{R. H. Bamler} [J. Funct. Anal. 272, No. 6, 2504--2627 (2017; Zbl 1390.53025)]. The paper also has a section on open questions that arise from their study, including but not limited to those about \begin{itemize} \item vanishing of metric measure boundary in smoothable Alexandrov spaces, \item coordinates near regular points, \item possible application of the metric-measure boundary in geodesically complete spaces with upper curvature bounds, and \item controlling metric measure boundary in Gromov-Hausdorff limits of manifolds with Ricci curvature lower bound (in relation to [\textit{J. Cheeger} and \textit{A. Naber}, Ann. Math. (2) 182, No. 3, 1093--1165 (2015; Zbl 1335.53057)]). \end{itemize}