A specific model of Hilbert geometry on the unit disc (Q7002552)

In this paper, a concrete new metric on the open unit disk satisfying the assumptions of Hilbert's 4th problem is defined, without the use of the cross ratio. More precisely, it is shown that this metric makes the open unit disk a geodesically complete metric space whose geodesics are of infinite length and are precisely the Euclidean lines. The resulting geometry is studied, namely, it is shown that the open unit disk with this new metric is not isometric to any hyperbolic model of constant curvature nor to any convex domain in the plane equipped with the classical Hilbert metric. Finally, the natural Euclidean boundary of the unit disk is shown to coincide with the visual boundary with respect to the new metric, namely, with the set of equivalence classes of asymptotic geodesic rays. The result is original and interesting and it answers a natural question.