Distance structures for generalized metric spaces

Abstract

Let $\mathcal{R}=(R,\oplus ,\le ,0)$ be an algebraic structure, where $\oplus$ is a commutative binary operation with identity $0$, and $\le$ is a translation-invariant total order with least element $0$. Given a distinguished subset $S\subseteq R$, we define the natural notion of a "generalized" $\mathcal{R}$-metric space, with distances in $S$. We study such metric spaces as first-order structures in a relational language consisting of a distance inequality for each element of $S$. We first construct an ordered additive structure ${\mathcal{S}}^{\ast }$ on the space of quantifier-free $2$-types consistent with the axioms of $\mathcal{R}$-metric spaces with distances in $S$, and show that, if $A$ is an $\mathcal{R}$-metric space with distances in $S$, then any model of $\text{Th}(A)$ logically inherits a canonical ${\mathcal{S}}^{\ast }$-metric. Our primary application of this framework concerns countable, universal, and homogeneous metric spaces, obtained as generalizations of the rational Urysohn space. We adapt previous work of Delhommé, Laflamme, Pouzet, and Sauer to fully characterize the existence of such spaces. We then fix a countable totally ordered commutative monoid $\mathcal{R}$, with least element $0$, and consider ${\mathcal{U}}_{\mathcal{R}}$, the countable Urysohn space over $\mathcal{R}$. We show that quantifier elimination for $\text{Th}({\mathcal{U}}_{\mathcal{R}})$ is characterized by continuity of addition in ${\mathcal{R}}^{\ast }$, which can be expressed as a first-order sentence of $\mathcal{R}$ in the language of ordered monoids. Finally, we analyze an example of Casanovas and Wagner in this context.

arXiv comment30 pages