Densifiable metric spaces (Q542060)

For \(\alpha\geq 0\), a path \(\gamma\) (that is, a continuous image of \([0,1]\)) in a bounded subset \(K\) of a metric space \(E\) is said to be \(\alpha\)-dense in \(K\) if the Hausdorff distance from \(\gamma\) to \(K\) is less than or equal to \(\alpha\). A subset \(D\) of a metric space is densifiable if for each \(\alpha>0\), \(D\) contains an \(\alpha\)-dense path. A subset \(Y\) of a precompact (respectively separable) metric space \(X\) is said to be a densifier (respectively, a pseudo-densifier) whenever \(Y\) is an arc-connected component which is dense in \(X\). Note that \(\mathbb R\) is a pseudo-densifier of itself but not a densifier; however, it is shown that in a densifiable metric space the concepts coincide. In this paper the authors study the relationship between the properties of being densifiable and having a densifier or a pseudo-densifier. It is shown that if a precompact metric space \((X,d)\) has a densifier, then it is densifiable and an example is given to show that the converse is false. However, in case \(X\) is a bounded subset with non-empty interior of \(\mathbb R^n\) with the Euclidean metric then the two properties are equivalent. In the final section, both the properties of having a densifier and having a pseudo-densifier are characterized.