Isometric embeddings of finite metric spaces (Q297654)

It is known that for a class \(\mathcal A\) of metric spaces, there is a totally bounded metric space isometrically containing all the spaces of \(\mathcal A\) if and only if \(\mathcal A\) has the following properties: (a) there is \(d>0\) such that \(\text{diam}\,A\leq d\) for each \(A\in{\mathcal A}\); and (b) for any \(\varepsilon>0\) there is \(n(\varepsilon)\in{\mathbb N}\) such that each space of \(\mathcal A\) has an \(\varepsilon\)-net consisting of at most \(n(\varepsilon)\) elements. This implies that a class \(\mathcal C\) of compact metric spaces satisfies the conditions (a) and (b) if and only if there is a compact metric space that isometrically contains all the spaces of \(\mathcal C\). In [\textit{S. D. Iliadis}, Universal spaces and mappings. North-Holland Mathematics Studies 198. Amsterdam: Elsevier. xvi, 559 p. (2005; Zbl 1072.54001)], a class of metric spaces satisfying the above conditions (a) and (b) was called \textit{uniform}, and it was proved that if a class of metric spaces is uniform and consists of spaces of dimension at most \(n\in{\mathbb N}\), then there is a totally bounded metric space of dimension at most \(n\) isometrically containing all the spaces of this class. Let \(\mathbb F\) be the class of all finite metric spaces of diameter at most 1, and \({\mathbb F}_n\), \(n\in{\mathbb N}\), be the subclass of \(\mathbb F\) consisting of spaces with at most \(n\) elements. Since \(\mathbb F\) is not uniform, there is no compact metric space containing isometrically all its elements. On the other hand, \({\mathbb F}_n\) is uniform and hence, from the above result in [loc. cit.], there is a totally bounded zero-dimensional metric space \(X\) containing isometrically all spaces of \({\mathbb F}_n\). Note that the space \(X\) might be non compact and it is unknown whether the completion of \(X\) is zero-dimensional. In this paper, the author constructs a metric \(\rho_T\) on a Cantor set \(T\) (and hence, \((T,\rho_T)\) is a zero-dimensional compact metric space) such that any space of \({\mathbb F}_n\) can be isometrically embedded into \((T,\rho_T)\). Clearly, for each \(m\in{\mathbb N}\) the space \((T,\rho_T)\) isometrically contains all elements of the subclass \({\mathbb F}_n({\mathbb R}^m)\subset{\mathbb F}_n\) of spaces that can be isometrically embedded into \(({\mathbb R}^m,\rho)\), where \(\rho\) is, for example, the Euclidean metric. But, unfortunately, the space \((T,\rho_T)\) cannot be embedded into \({\mathbb R}^k\) for any \(k\in{\mathbb N}\). In this paper, for any \(m,n\in{\mathbb N}\) he also constructs another Cantor set in \({\mathbb R}^m\) that isometrically contains all spaces in \({\mathbb F}_n({\mathbb R}^m)\).