Porosity results for two-set nearest and farthest point problems (Q903072)

A mapping \(c : R^ {1} \rightarrow X\) is called a metric embedding of \( R^ {1}\) into \(X\) if \( \rho (c(s), c(t)) = |s -t|\) for all real \(s\) and \(t\) where \((X, \rho)\) is a metric space and \( R^ {1} \) denotes the real line. The image of \( R^ {1}\) under a metric embedding is called a metric line. The image of a real interval \([a, b] =\{t \in R^ {1} : a \leq t \leq b \}\) under such a mapping is called a metric segment. Let \( (X, \rho)\) contain a family \(M\) of metric lines such that for each pair of distinct points \(x\) and \(y\) in \(X\), there is a unique metric line in \(M\) which passes through \(x\) and \(y\). This metric line determines a unique metric segment joining \(x\) and \(y\). This segment is denoted by \([x, y]\). For each \(0 \leq t \leq 1\), there is a unique point \(z\) in \([x, y]\) such that \(\rho (x, z) = t\rho (x, y)\) and \(\rho (z, y) = (1 - t)\rho (x, y\)). This point is denoted by \((1-t)x \oplus t y\). In this case \(X\), or more precisely \((X, \rho, M)\), is called a geodesic space. Let \((X, \rho, M)\) be a complete geodesic space, and \(B(X)\) be the family of all nonempty, bounded and closed subsets of \(X\). The distance from a point \(x\) to an element \(A\) of \(B(X)\) is defined as \(\rho (x, A) := \mathrm{inf }\{\rho (x, y) : y \in { A} \}\), and the farthest distance between a point \(x\) and an element \(A\) of \(B(X)\) is defined as \(e(x, A) = \sup\{\rho (x, y) : y \in { A}\}\). The diameter of an element \(A\) of \(B(X)\) is defined as \(\mathrm{diam}(A) = \mathrm{sup }\{\rho (x, y) : x, y \in { A}\}\). A metric on \( B(X)\) is defined as \(\overline{H} (A, B) := \frac{ H(A, B)}{ 1 + H(A, B)}\). for each \(A, B \in { B(X) }\) where \(H(A, B)=\max \{\sup \{ \rho (x, B) : x \in { A} \}, \sup \{ \rho (y, A) : y\in { B} \} \}\) for each \(A, B \in { B(X) }\). In the paper under review, the authors study the problems of finding pairs of nearest and farthest points in \(A\) and \(B\) for given two nonempty, closed and bounded subsets \(A\) and \(B\) of a complete geodesic space \((X, \rho, M)\). They endow \(B(X) \times B(X)\) with a pair of natural metrics denoting by \(B(X)\) the family of all nonempty, closed and bounded subsets of \(X\). They then introduce corresponding metric spaces \(M\) of pairs \((A, B)\) and construct subsets \( \Omega\) of \(M\) with \( \sigma\)-porous complements.