Globalization of the partial isometries of metric spaces and local approximation of the group of isometries of Urysohn space (Q935263)

For a metric space \((X,d)\) denote by \(ISO(X)\) the group of all isometries of \(X\) and let \(PISO(X)\) be the semigroup (with respect to composition) of all partial isometries of \(X\), where \(f:A\to B\) is called a partial isometry of \(X\) if \(A\) and \(B\) are subsets of \(X\), \(f\) is bijective, and \(d(f(x),f(y))=d(x,y)\) whenever \(x,y\in A\). Obviously, \(ISO(X) \subset PISO(X)\). The following theorem on the simultaneous extension of partial isometries for finite metric spaces was announced by the author in 2005 and proved by \textit{S. Solecki} [Isr. J. Math. 150, 315--331 (2005; Zbl 1124.54012)]. Theorem 1. For every finite metric space \((X,d)\) there exists an isometric embedding \(e:(X,d)\to(\widehat X, \widehat d)\) into a finite metric space \((\widehat X,\widehat d)\) and a mapping \(E:PISO(X)\to ISO(\widehat X)\) such that the following holds: (i) \(e(f(x))=E(f)(e(x))\) for each \(f\in PISO(X)\) and for each \(x\in \text{dom}(f)\); and (ii) for every subset \(A\) of \(X\), the restriction of \(E\) to \(ISO(A)\) is a homomorphism of \(ISO(A)\) into \(ISO(\widehat X)\), i.e., \(E(f\circ g)=E(f)\circ E(g)\) whenever \(f,g\in ISO(A)\). Let \(\mathbb{U}\) be the universal Urysohn metric space, i.e., the (up to isometry) unique separable complete metric space with the following properties: (i) \(\mathbb{U}\) contains an isometric copy of every separable metric space; and (ii) every partial isometry \(f\in PISO(\mathbb{U})\) extends to an isometry \(\widetilde f\in ISO(\mathbb{U})\). Theorem 2. \(ISO(\mathbb{U})\) has a locally finite subgroup which is dense in \(ISO(\mathbb{U})\) (with respect to the topology of simple convergence). The main result of this interesting paper shows that Theorem 1 and Theorem 2 are equivalent. Recently Theorem 2 was strenghtened by \textit{V. G. Pestov} [Topology Appl. 154, No. 10, 2173--2184 (2007; Zbl 1127.22001) and applied in [Topology Appl. 155, No. 14, 1561--1575 (2008; Zbl 1152.46062)].