The Four Point Condition: An Elementary Tropicalization of Ptolemy's Inequality

Abstract

Ptolemy's inequality is a classic relationship between the distances among four points in Euclidean space. Another relationship between six distances is the 4-point condition, an inequality satisfied by the lengths of the six paths that join any four points of a metric (or weighted) tree. The 4-point condition also characterizes when a finite metric space can be embedded in such a tree. The curious observer might realize that these inequalities have similar forms: if one replaces addition and multiplication in Ptolemy's inequality with maximum and addition, respectively, one obtains the 4-point condition. We show that this similarity is more than a coincidence. We identify a family of Ptolemaic inequalities in CAT-spaces parametrized by a real number and show that a certain limit involving these inequalities, as the parameter goes to negative infinity, yields the 4-point condition, giving an elementary proof that the latter is the tropicalization of Ptolemy's inequality.

Improved the introduction by adding the history of Ptolemy's inequality and related works, context for tropical geometry, and Gromov hyperbolicity. Added a dedicated section for definitions. Improved the bounds in Example 2.5 (used to be Example 3.3)