Estimates of the Kobayashi and quasi-hyperbolic distances (Q509560)

Let \(D\) be a bounded domain in \(\mathbb C^n\) (resp.~\(\mathbb R^n\)) and let \(k_D\) (resp.~\(h_D\)) denote the Kobayashi (resp.~quasi-hyperbolic) distance in \(D\). Moreover, for \(c>0\) let \[ v^c_D(z,w)=2\log\Big(1+\frac{c|z-w|}{\sqrt{d_D(z)d_D(w)}}\Big),\quad z,w\in D, \] where \(d_D(z)\) is the distance of \(z\) to the boundary of \(D\). It is known that \(v^c_D\) is a distance, if \(c\geq2\). The main result of the paper under review is the following. Let \(a\) be a Dini-smooth boundary point of a domain in \(\mathbb C^n\) (resp.~\(\mathbb R^n\)). Then for any constant \(c\geq 1+\sqrt{2}/2\) there exists a neighborhood \(U\) of \(a\) such that \[ 2k_D\leq v^c_D ,\quad(\text{resp. }h_D\leq v^c_D) \] on \((D\cap U)\times(D\cap U)\). In particular, if \(D\) is a Dini-smooth bounded damain in \(\mathbb C^n\) (resp.~\(\mathbb R^n\)), then there exists a constant \(c>1+\sqrt{2}/2\) such that \[ 2k_D\leq v^c_D ,\quad(\text{resp. }h_D\leq v^c_D). \] As a corollary, the authors obtain that for any Dini-smooth bounded domain \(D\) in \(\mathbb C^n\) the function \(2k_D-h_D\) is bounded from above.