On the quantitative quasi-isometry problem: transport of Poincaré inequalities and different types of quasi-isometric distortion growth (Q499591)

Two metric spaces \(X\) and \(Y\) are said to be roughly quasi-isometric if there exists a pair of maps \(f:X\rightarrow Y, g:Y\rightarrow X\) and two constants \(\lambda > 0\) and \(c\geq 0\) such that \(|f(x)-f(y)|\leq \lambda|x-y| + c\) for \(x, y\in X\), \(|g(x')-g(y')|\leq\lambda|x'-y'| +c\) for \(x', y'\in Y\), \(|g(f(x))-x| \leq c\) for \(x\in X\), and \(|f(g(x'))-x'| \leq c\) for \(x'\in Y\). The author defines rough \((\lambda_1, c_1, \lambda_2, c_2)\)-quasi-isometric embedding and quasi-isometric distortion growth. Let \(\mathbb{T}^n\) denote the \(n\)-dimensional torus. Given positive numbers \(\mu_1 \leq \cdots \leq \mu_n\), denote \(Z_\mu =\mathbb{T}^n \times\mathbb{R}\), where the product space is equipped with the Riemannian metric \(dt^2+ \sum_i e^{2\mu_it}dx^2_i\). The universal cover of \(Z_\mu\) is a Riemannian homogeneous space; \(Z_\mu\) is a hyperbolic metric space. One of the main results that the author obtains is the following theorem: For \(R\) large enough, every \((\lambda, c)\)-quasi-isometric embedding \(\Theta\) of an \(R\)-ball of \(Z_\mu\) into \(Z_{\mu'}\) (up to replacing the spaces with connected 2-sheeted coverings) is a homotopy equivalence satisfying \(\lambda + c \geq \mathrm{const} \left(\frac{\sum \mu_i}{\mu_n}-\frac{\sum \mu'_i}{\mu'_n} \right)R\). Conversely, there exist homotopy equivalences with linearly growing distortion, \(\lambda + c \leq \mathrm{const} \max |\mu_i- {\mu'}_i| R\) from an \(R\)-ball of \(Z_\mu\) into \(Z_{\mu'}\). The author gives a detailed account of many aspects concerning quasi-isometric metric spaces.