If $Ω$ is the interior of a convex polygon in $\mathbb{R}^{2}$ and $f,g$ two asymptotic geodesics, we show that the distance function $d\left(f\left(t\right),g\left(t\right)\right)$ is convex for $t$ sufficiently large. The same result is obtained in the case $\partial Ω$ is of class $C^{2}$ and the curvature of $\partial Ω$ at the point $f\left(\infty\right)=g\left(\infty\right) $ does not vanish. An example is provided for the necessity of the curvature assumption.
The Hilbert metric on convex subsets of $\mathbb R^n$ has proven a rich notion and has been extensively studied. We propose here a generalization of this metric to subset of complex projective spaces and give examples of applications to diverse fields. Basic examples include the classical Hilbert metric which coincides with the hyperbolic metric on real hyperbolic spaces as well as the complex hyperbolic metric on complex hyperbolic spaces.
This paper provides rates of convergence for empirical (generalised) barycenters on compact geodesic metric spaces under general conditions using empirical processes techniques. Our main assumption is termed a variance inequality and provides a strong connection between usual assumptions in the field of empirical processes and central concepts of metric geometry. We study the validity of variance inequalities in spaces of non-positive and non-negative Aleksandrov curvature. In this last scenario, we show that variance inequalities hold provided geodesics, emanating from a barycenter, can be ex…
In this paper, we show a local energy convexity of $W^{1,2}$ maps into $CAT(K)$ spaces. This energy convexity allows us to extend Colding and Minicozzi's width-sweepout construction to produce closed geodesics in any closed Alexandrov space of curvature bounded from above, which also provides a generalized version of the Birkhoff-Lyusternik theorem on the existence of non-trivial closed geodesics in the Alexandrov setting.
We study the geometry of metrics and convexity structures on the space of phylogenetic trees, which is here realized as the tropical linear space of all \ ultrametrics. The ${\rm CAT}(0)$-metric of Billera-Holmes-Vogtman arises from the theory of orthant spaces. While its geodesics can be computed by the Owen-Provan algorithm, geodesic triangles are complicated. We show that the dimension of such a triangle can be arbitrarily high. Tropical convexity and the tropical metric behave better. They exhibit properties desirable for geometric statistics, such as geodesics of small depth.
A spherical set is called convex if for every pair of its points there is at least one minimal geodesic segment that joins these points and lies in the set. We prove that for n >= 3 a complete locally-convex (topological) immersion of a connected (n-1)-manifold into the n-sphere is a surjection onto the boundary of a convex set.
It is shown that the Hilbert geometry $(D,h_D)$ associated to a bounded convex domain $D\subset \mathbb{E}^n$ is isometric to a normed vector space $(V,||\cdot ||)$ if and only if $D$ is an open $n$-simplex. One further result on the asymptotic geometry of Hilbert's metric is obtained with corollaries for the behavior of geodesics. Finally we prove that every geodesic ray in a Hilbert geometry converges to a point of the boundary.
We study a new notion of Ricci curvature that applies to Markov chains on discrete spaces. This notion relies on geodesic convexity of the entropy and is analogous to the one introduced by Lott, Sturm, and Villani for geodesic measure spaces. In order to apply to the discrete setting, the role of the Wasserstein metric is taken over by a different metric, having the property that continuous time Markov chains are gradient flows of the entropy. Using this notion of Ricci curvature we prove discrete analogues of fundamental results by Bakry--Emery and Otto--Villani. Furthermore we show that Ricc…
We study the behaviour of a Hilbert geometry when going to infinity along a geodesic line. We prove that all the information is contained in the shape of the boundary at the endpoint of this geodesic line and have to introduce a regularity property of convex functions to make this link precise. The point of view is a dynamical one and the main interest of this article is in Lyapunov exponents of the geodesic flow.
It is shown that a possibly irreversible $C^2$ Finsler metric on the torus, or on any other compact Euclidean space form, whose geodesics are straight lines is the sum of a flat metric and a closed $1$-form. This is used to prove that if $(M,g)$ is a compact Riemannian symmetric space of rank greater than one and $F$ is a {\sl reversible} $C^2$ Finsler metric on $M$ whose unparametrized geodesics coincide with those of $g$, then $(M,F)$ is a Finsler symmetric space.
During the last decade Optimal Transport had a relevant role in the study of geometry of singular spaces that culminated with the Lott-Sturm-Villani theory. The latter is built on the characterisation of Ricci curvature lower bounds in terms of displacement convexity of certain entropy functionals along $W_{2}$-geodesics. Substantial recent advancements in the theory (localization paradigm and local-to-global property) have been obtained considering the different point of view of $L^1$-Optimal transport problems yielding a different curvature dimension $\mathsf{CD}^{1}(K,N)$ [8] formulated in …
In spaces of nonpositive curvature the existence of isometrically embedded flat (hyper)planes is often granted by apparently weaker conditions on large scales. We show that some such results remain valid for metric spaces with non-unique geodesic segments under suitable convexity assumptions on the distance function along distinguished geodesics. The discussion includes, among other things, the Flat Torus Theorem and Gromov's hyperbolicity criterion referring to embedded planes. This generalizes results of Bowditch for Busemann spaces.
Let $\mathcal{H}$ be a reproducing kernel Hilbert space of functions on a set $X$. We study the problem of finding a minimal geodesic of the Grassmann manifold of $\mathcal{H}$ that joins two subspaces consisting of functions which vanish on given finite subsets of $X$. We establish a necessary and sufficient condition for existence and uniqueness of geodesics, and we then analyze it in examples. We discuss the relation of the geodesic distance with other known metrics when the mentioned finite subsets are singletons. We find estimates on the upper and lower eigenvalues of the unique self-adjo…
Metric graph properties lie in the heart of the analysis of complex networks, while in this paper we study their convexity through mathematical definition of a convex subgraph. A subgraph is convex if every geodesic path between the nodes of the subgraph lies entirely within the subgraph. According to our perception of convexity, convex network is such in which every connected subset of nodes induces a convex subgraph. We show that convexity is an inherent property of many networks that is not present in a random graph. Most convex are spatial infrastructure networks and social collaboration g…
In this note we show that in metric measure spaces satisfying the reduced curvature-dimension condition CD*(K,N) we always have geodesics in the Wasserstein space of probability measures that satisfy the critical convexity inequality of CD*(K,N) also for intermediate times and in addition the measures along these geodesics have an upper-bound on their densities. This upper-bound depends on the bounds for the densities of the end-point measures, the lower-bound K for the Ricci-curvature, the upper-bound N for the dimension, and on the diameter of the union of the supports of the end-point measu…
A geodesic bicombing on a metric space selects for every pair of points a geodesic connecting them. We prove existence and uniqueness results for geodesic bicombings satisfying different convexity conditions. In combination with recent work by the second author on injective hulls, this shows that every word hyperbolic group acts geometrically on a proper, finite dimensional space X with a unique (hence equivariant) convex geodesic bicombing of the strongest type. Furthermore, the Gromov boundary of X is a Z-set in the closure of X, and the latter is a metrizable absolute retract, in analogy wi…
We study the geodesic flow of geometrically finite quotients $Ω/Γ$ of Hilbert geometries, in particular its recurrence properties. We prove that, under a geometrical assumption on the cusps, the geodesic flow is uniformly hyperbolic. Without this assumption, we provide an example of a quotient whose geodesic flow has a zero Lyapunov exponent. We make the link between the dynamics of the geodesic flow and some properties of the convex set $Ω$ and the group $Γ$. As a consequence, we get various rigidity results which extend previous results of Benoist and Guichard for compact quotients. Finally,…
We construct geodesics in the Wasserstein space of probability measure along which all the measures have an upper bound on their density that is determined by the densities of the endpoints of the geodesic. Using these geodesics we show that a local Poincaré inequality and the measure contraction property follow from the Ricci curvature bounds defined by Sturm. We also show for a large class of convex functionals that a local Poincaré inequality is implied by the weak displacement convexity of the functional.
We survey some basic geometric properties of the Funk metric of a convex set in $\mathbb{R}^n$. In particular, we study its geodesics, its topology, its metric balls, its convexity properties, its perpendicularity theory and its isometries. The Hilbert metric is a symmetrization of the Funk metric, and we show some properties of the Hilbert metric that follow directly from the properties we prove for the Funk metric.
The goal of this paper is to introduce and study analogues of the Euclidean Funk and Hilbert metrics on open convex subsets $Ω$ of hyperbolic or spherical spaces. At least at a formal level, there are striking similarities among the three cases: Euclidean, spherical and hyperbolic. We start by defining non-Euclidean analogues of the Euclidean Funk weak metric and we give three distinct representations of it in each of the non-Euclidean cases, which parallel the known situation for the Euclidean case. As a consequence, all of these metrics are shown to be Finslerian, and the associated norms of…
