On the metric geometry of the space of compact balls and the shooting property for length spaces

Abstract

In this work we study the geodesic structure of the space $\Sigma (X)$ of compact balls of a complete and locally compact metric length space endowed with the Hausdorff distance $d_H$. In particular, we focus on a geometric condition (referred to as the shooting property) that enables us to give an explicit isometry between $(\Sigma (X),d_H)$ and the closed half-space $X\times {\mathbb{R}}_{\ge 0}$ endowed with a taxicab metric.

26 pages