Subsets of rectifiable curves in Banach spaces. I: Sharp exponents in traveling salesman theorems (Q6113393)

The \textit{analyst's traveling salesman problem} is to find out whether a set in a path-connected metric space is contained in a rectifiable curve, and if so, to find such a curve as short as possible. The paper contains extensions of the known results in \(\ell_2\) to the \(\ell_p\) spaces, \(1<p<\infty\). The authors first proved that the classes of rectifiable curves in Banach spaces \(\ell_p\) and \(\ell_q\) differ for \(p\neq q\). ``Every rectifiable curve in \(\ell_p\) is a rectifiable curve in \(\ell_q\) for \(1<p\leq q <\infty\). However, there is a curve \(\gamma\) in \(\ell_p\) which is rectifiable (i.e. \(\mathcal{H}^1(\gamma)<\infty\)) in all \(\ell_q\), \(q>p\), but \(\gamma\) is not rectifiable in \(\ell_p\) (i.e. \(\mathcal{H}^1(\gamma)=\infty\)).'' To formulate the main results of the paper we need the following notions. Let \(E\subset X\) be a nonempty set in a Banach space \(X\), \(Q\subset X\) of positive diameter and \(E\cap Q\neq \emptyset\). The \textit{Jones' beta number} \(\beta_E(Q)\) is \[ \beta_E(Q)=\inf_L\sup_{x\in E\cap Q} \frac{\text{dist}(x,L)}{\text{diam}\,Q}, \] where the infimum is taken over all one-dimensional affine subspaces \(L\) in \(X\). For any \(\varrho>0\), a \emph{\(\varrho\)-net \(X_\varrho\) for a set \(E\)} is a set such that \begin{itemize} \item[(i)] dist\((x,y)\geq \varrho\) for any \(x,y\in X_\varrho\), \item[(ii)] dist\((x,X_\varrho)<\varrho\) for any \(x\in E\). \end{itemize} A \textit{multiresolution family} \(\mathcal Q\) for \(E\) with \textit{inflation factor} \(A_\mathcal{Q}>1\) is a collection of closed balls of the form \[ {\mathcal Q}=\{B(x,2^kA_{\mathcal Q}) \mid x\in X_{2^k},\ k\in\mathbb{Z}\}, \] where \((X_{2^k})_{k\in\mathbb{Z}}\) is a nested family of \(2^k\)-nets for \(E\). Finally, \[ S_{E,r}(\mathcal{Q}):=\text{diam}\,E+\sum_{Q\in \mathcal{Q}} \beta_E(Q)^r\,\text{diam} \,Q, \ \ 0<r<\infty. \] Theorem. [Sharp sufficient conditions] Let \(1<p<\infty\). If \(E\subset \ell_p\) and \(S_{E,\min\{p,2\}}(\mathcal{Q})<\infty\) for some multiresolution family \(\mathcal{Q}\) for \(E\) with inflation factor \(A_{\mathcal{Q}} \geq 240\), then \(E\) is contained in a curve \(\gamma\) in \(\ell_p\) with \[ \mathcal{H}^1(\gamma)\leq C\,S_{E,\min\{p,2\}}(\mathcal{Q}), \] where \(C=C(p,A_{\mathcal{Q}})\) depends on \(p\) and \(A_{\mathcal{Q}}\). The exponent \(\min\{p,2\}\) is sharp. Theorem. [Sharp sufficient conditions] Let \(1<p<\infty\). If \(E\subset \ell_p\) is a connected set and \(\mathcal{Q}\) is a multiresolution family for \(E\) with inflation factor \(A_{\mathcal{Q}}>1\), then \[ S_{E,\max\{p,2\}}(\mathcal{Q})\leq C\, \mathcal{H}^1(\gamma), \] where \(C=C(p,A_{\mathcal{Q}})\) depends on \(p\) and \(A_{\mathcal{Q}}\). The exponent \(\max\{p,2\}\) is sharp. In case \(\ell_2\) the sufficient and necessary conditions coincide. While the proof of Theorem 1 is contained in the paper, proof of Theorem 2 is deferred to Part II of this paper.