Metric space

In mathematics, a metric space is a

set together with a metric on the set.
The metric is a function that defines
a concept of distance between any
two members of the set, which are
usually called points. The metric
satisfies a few simple properties.
Informally:

the distance from a point to itself

is zero,
 the distance between two distinct
points is positive,
the distance from A to B is the
same as the distance from B to A,
and
the distance from A to B (directly)
is less than or equal to the
distance from A to B via any third
point C.

A metric on a space induces

topological properties like open and
closed sets, which lead to the study
of more abstract topological spaces.

The most familiar metric space is 3-

dimensional Euclidean space. In fact,
a "metric" is the generalization of the
Euclidean metric arising from the
four long-known properties of the
Euclidean distance. The Euclidean
metric defines the distance between
two points as the length of the
straight line segment connecting
them. Other metric spaces occur for
example in elliptic geometry and
hyperbolic geometry, where distance
on a sphere measured by angle is a
metric, and the hyperboloid model of
hyperbolic geometry is used by
special relativity as a metric space of
velocities.
History
This section needs expansion with:
Reasons for generalizing the Euclidean
Learn more
metric, first non-Euclidean metrics
In 1906 Maurice Fréchet introduced
metric spaces in his work Sur
quelques points du calcul
fonctionnel.[1] However the name is
due to Felix Hausdorff.

Definition
A metric space is an ordered pair
where is a set and is a
metric on , i.e., a function
such that for any , the
following holds:[2]

identity of
1.
indiscernibles
2. symmetry
subadditivity or
3. triangle
inequality

Given the above three axioms, we

also have that for any
. This is deduced as
follows:
 by triangle
inequality
by symmetry
by identity of
indiscernibles
we have non-
negativity

The function is also called distance

function or simply distance. Often,
is omitted and one just writes for
a metric space if it is clear from the
context what metric is used.

Ignoring mathematical details, for

any system of roads and terrains the
distance between two locations can
be defined as the length of the
shortest route connecting those
locations. To be a metric there
shouldn't be any one-way roads. The
triangle inequality expresses the fact
that detours aren't shortcuts. If the
distance between two points is zero,
the two points are indistinguishable
from one-another. Many of the
examples below can be seen as
concrete versions of this general
idea.

Examples of metric spaces

The real numbers with the
distance function
given by the
absolute difference, and, more
generally, Euclidean n-space with
the Euclidean distance, are
complete metric spaces. The
rational numbers with the same
distance function also form a
metric space, but not a complete
one.
The positive real numbers with
distance function
is a
complete metric space.
Any normed vector space is a
metric space by defining
 , see also
metrics on vector spaces. (If such
a space is complete, we call it a
Banach space.) Examples:
The Manhattan norm gives
rise to the Manhattan
distance, where the distance
between any two points, or
vectors, is the sum of the
differences between
corresponding coordinates.
The maximum norm gives rise
to the Chebyshev distance or
chessboard distance, the
minimal number of moves a
chess king would take to
 travel from to .
The British Rail metric (also called
the “post office metric” or the
“SNCF metric”) on a normed
vector space is given by
for distinct
points and , and .
More generally can be
replaced with a function taking
an arbitrary set to non-negative
reals and taking the value at
most once: then the metric is
defined on by
for
distinct points and , and
. The name alludes to
the tendency of railway journeys
to proceed via London (or Paris)
irrespective of their final
destination.
If is a metric space and
is a subset of , then
becomes a metric space by
restricting the domain of to
.
The discrete metric, where
if and
otherwise, is a
simple but important example, and
can be applied to all sets. This, in
particular, shows that for any set,
there is always a metric space
associated to it. Using this metric,
any point is an open ball, and
therefore every subset is open and
the space has the discrete
topology.
A finite metric space is a metric
space having a finite number of
points. Not every finite metric
space can be isometrically
embedded in a Euclidean
space.[3][4]
The hyperbolic plane is a metric
space. More generally:
If is any connected
Riemannian manifold, then we
can turn into a metric
space by defining the
distance of two points as the
infimum of the lengths of the
paths (continuously
differentiable curves)
connecting them.
If is some set and is a
metric space, then, the set of
all bounded functions
(i.e. those
functions whose image is a
bounded subset of ) can
be turned into a metric space
by defining

for any two bounded

functions and (where
is supremum).[5] This metric
is called the uniform metric or
supremum metric, and If is
complete, then this function
space is complete as well. If X
is also a topological space,
then the set of all bounded
continuous functions from
to (endowed with the
uniform metric), will also be a
complete metric if M is.
If is an undirected
connected graph, then the set
of vertices of can be
turned into a metric space by
 defining to be the
length of the shortest path
connecting the vertices and
. In geometric group theory
this is applied to the Cayley
graph of a group, yielding the
word metric.
Graph edit distance is a measure
of dissimilarity between two
graphs, defined as the minimal
number of graph edit operations
required to transform one graph
into another.
The Levenshtein distance is a
measure of the dissimilarity
between two strings and ,
defined as the minimal number of
character deletions, insertions, or
substitutions required to transform
into . This can be thought of as
a special case of the shortest path
metric in a graph and is one
example of an edit distance.
Given a metric space and
an increasing concave function
such that
if and only if ,
then is also a metric on .
Given an injective function from
any set to a metric space
, defines a
metric on .
 Using T-theory, the tight span of a
metric space is also a metric
space. The tight span is useful in
several types of analysis.
The set of all by matrices
over some field is a metric space
with respect to the rank distance
.
The Helly metric is used in game
theory.

Open and closed sets,

topology and convergence
Every metric space is a topological
space in a natural manner, and
therefore all definitions and
theorems about general topological
spaces also apply to all metric
spaces.

About any point in a metric space

we define the open ball of
radius (where is a real
number) about as the set

These open balls form the base for a

topology on M, making it a
topological space.

Explicitly, a subset of is called

open if for every in there exists
an such that is
contained in . The complement of
an open set is called closed. A
neighborhood of the point is any
subset of that contains an open
ball about as a subset.

A topological space which can arise

in this way from a metric space is
called a metrizable space.

A sequence ( ) in a metric space

is said to converge to the limit
if and only if for every ,
there exists a natural number N such
that for all .
Equivalently, one can use the general
definition of convergence available in
all topological spaces.

A subset of the metric space is

closed if and only if every sequence
in that converges to a limit in
has its limit in .

Types of metric spaces

Complete spaces …

A metric space is said to be

complete if every Cauchy sequence
converges in . That is to say: if
as both and
independently go to infinity, then
there is some with
 .

Every Euclidean space is complete,

as is every closed subset of a
complete space. The rational
numbers, using the absolute value
metric , are not
complete.

Every metric space has a unique (up

to isometry) completion, which is a
complete space that contains the
given space as a dense subset. For
example, the real numbers are the
completion of the rationals.

If is a complete subset of the

metric space , then is closed in
. Indeed, a space is complete if
and only if it is closed in any
containing metric space.

Every complete metric space is a

Baire space.

Bounded and totally

bounded spaces …
Diameter of a set.

A metric space M is called bounded

if there exists some number r, such
that d(x,y) ≤ r for all x and y in M. The
smallest possible such r is called the
diameter of M. The space M is
called precompact or totally
bounded if for every r > 0 there exist
finitely many open balls of radius r
whose union covers M. Since the set
of the centres of these balls is finite,
it has finite diameter, from which it
follows (using the triangle inequality)
that every totally bounded space is
bounded. The converse does not
hold, since any infinite set can be
given the discrete metric (one of the
examples above) under which it is
bounded and yet not totally
bounded.

Note that in the context of intervals

in the space of real numbers and
occasionally regions in a Euclidean
space a bounded set is referred
to as "a finite interval" or "finite
region". However boundedness
should not in general be confused
with "finite", which refers to the
number of elements, not to how far
the set extends; finiteness implies
boundedness, but not conversely.
Also note that an unbounded subset
of may have a finite volume.

Compact spaces …

A metric space M is compact if every

sequence in M has a subsequence
that converges to a point in M. This is
known as sequential compactness
and, in metric spaces (but not in
general topological spaces), is
equivalent to the topological notions
of countable compactness and
compactness defined via open
covers.

Examples of compact metric spaces

include the closed interval [0,1] with
the absolute value metric, all metric
spaces with finitely many points, and
the Cantor set. Every closed subset
of a compact space is itself
compact.

A metric space is compact if and

only if it is complete and totally
bounded. This is known as the
Heine–Borel theorem. Note that
compactness depends only on the
topology, while boundedness
depends on the metric.

Lebesgue's number lemma states

that for every open cover of a
compact metric space M, there
exists a "Lebesgue number" δ such
that every subset of M of diameter <
δ is contained in some member of
the cover.

Every compact metric space is

second countable,[6] and is a
continuous image of the Cantor set.
(The latter result is due to Pavel
Alexandrov and Urysohn.)

Locally compact and proper

spaces
…

A metric space is said to be locally

compact if every point has a
compact neighborhood. Euclidean
spaces are locally compact, but
infinite-dimensional Banach spaces
are not.

A space is proper if every closed ball

{y : d(x,y) ≤ r} is compact. Proper
spaces are locally compact, but the
converse is not true in general.
Connectedness …

A metric space is connected if

the only subsets that are both open
and closed are the empty set and
itself.

A metric space is path connected

if for any two points there
exists a continuous map
with and
. Every path connected
space is connected, but the
converse is not true in general.

There are also local versions of these

definitions: locally connected spaces
and locally path connected spaces.

Simply connected spaces are those

that, in a certain sense, do not have
"holes".

Separable spaces …

A metric space is separable space if

it has a countable dense subset.
Typical examples are the real
numbers or any Euclidean space. For
metric spaces (but not for general
topological spaces) separability is
equivalent to second-countability
and also to the Lindelöf property.
Pointed metric spaces …

If is a nonempty metric space and

then is called a
pointed metric space, and is
called a distinguished point. Note
that a pointed metric space is just a
nonempty metric space with
attention drawn to its distinguished
point, and that any nonempty metric
space can be viewed as a pointed
metric space. The distinguished
point is sometimes denoted due to
its similar behavior to zero in certain
contexts.
Types of maps between
metric spaces
Suppose (M1,d1) and (M2,d2) are two
metric spaces.

Continuous maps …

The map f:M1→M2 is continuous if it

has one (and therefore all) of the
following equivalent properties:

General topological continuity

for every open set U in M2, the
preimage f -1(U) is open in M1
This is the general definition of
continuity in topology.
 Sequential continuity
if (xn) is a sequence in M1 that
converges to x in M1, then the
sequence (f(xn)) converges to f(x)
in M2.
This is sequential continuity, due
to Eduard Heine.
ε-δ definition
for every x in M1 and every ε>0
there exists δ>0 such that for all y
in M1 we have

This uses the (ε, δ)-definition of

limit, and is due to Augustin Louis
Cauchy.

Moreover, f is continuous if and only

if it is continuous on every compact
subset of M1.

The image of every compact set

under a continuous function is
compact, and the image of every
connected set under a continuous
function is connected.

Uniformly continuous maps …

The map ƒ : M1 → M2 is uniformly

continuous if for every ε > 0 there
exists δ > 0 such that

Every uniformly continuous map ƒ :

M1 → M2 is continuous. The
converse is true if M1 is compact
(Heine–Cantor theorem).

Uniformly continuous maps turn

Cauchy sequences in M1 into
Cauchy sequences in M2. For
continuous maps this is generally
wrong; for example, a continuous
map from the open interval (0,1) onto
the real line turns some Cauchy
sequences into unbounded
sequences.

Lipschitz-continuous maps
and contractions
…
Given a real number K > 0, the map
ƒ : M1 → M2 is K-Lipschitz
continuous if

Every Lipschitz-continuous map is

uniformly continuous, but the
converse is not true in general.

If K < 1, then ƒ is called a contraction.

Suppose M2 = M1 and M1 is
complete. If ƒ is a contraction, then ƒ
admits a unique fixed point (Banach
fixed point theorem). If M1 is
compact, the condition can be
weakened a bit: ƒ admits a unique
fixed point if
 .

Isometries …

The map f:M1→M2 is an isometry if

Isometries are always injective; the

image of a compact or complete set
under an isometry is compact or
complete, respectively. However, if
the isometry is not surjective, then
the image of a closed (or open) set
need not be closed (or open).

Quasi-isometries …
The map f : M1 → M2 is a quasi-
isometry if there exist constants
A ≥ 1 and B ≥ 0 such that

and a constant C ≥ 0 such that every

point in M2 has a distance at most C
from some point in the image f(M1).

Note that a quasi-isometry is not

required to be continuous. Quasi-
isometries compare the "large-scale
structure" of metric spaces; they find
use in geometric group theory in
relation to the word metric.
Notions of metric space
equivalence
Given two metric spaces (M1, d1) and
(M2, d2):

They are called homeomorphic

(topologically isomorphic) if there
exists a homeomorphism between
them (i.e., a bijection continuous in
both directions).
They are called uniformic
(uniformly isomorphic) if there
exists a uniform isomorphism
between them (i.e., a bijection
uniformly continuous in both
directions).
 They are called isometric if there
exists a bijective isometry
between them. In this case, the
two metric spaces are essentially
identical.
They are called quasi-isometric if
there exists a quasi-isometry
between them.

Topological properties
Metric spaces are paracompact[7]
Hausdorff spaces[8] and hence
normal (indeed they are perfectly
normal). An important consequence
is that every metric space admits
partitions of unity and that every
continuous real-valued function
defined on a closed subset of a
metric space can be extended to a
continuous map on the whole space
(Tietze extension theorem). It is also
true that every real-valued Lipschitz-
continuous map defined on a subset
of a metric space can be extended to
a Lipschitz-continuous map on the
whole space.

Metric spaces are first countable

since one can use balls with rational
radius as a neighborhood base.

The metric topology on a metric

space M is the coarsest topology on
M relative to which the metric d is a
continuous map from the product of
M with itself to the non-negative real
numbers.

Distance between points

and sets; Hausdorff
distance and Gromov
metric
A simple way to construct a function
separating a point from a closed set
(as required for a completely regular
space) is to consider the distance
between the point and the set. If
(M,d) is a metric space, S is a subset
of M and x is a point of M, we define
the distance from x to S as

where represents the infimum.

Then d(x, S) = 0 if and only if x

belongs to the closure of S.
Furthermore, we have the following
generalization of the triangle
inequality:

which in particular shows that the

map is continuous.

Given two subsets S and T of M, we

define their Hausdorff distance to be
 where represents the
supremum.

In general, the Hausdorff distance

dH(S,T) can be infinite. Two sets are
close to each other in the Hausdorff
distance if every element of either
set is close to some element of the
other set.

The Hausdorff distance dH turns the

set K(M) of all non-empty compact
subsets of M into a metric space.
One can show that K(M) is complete
if M is complete. (A different notion
of convergence of compact subsets
is given by the Kuratowski
convergence.)

One can then define the Gromov–

Hausdorff distance between any two
metric spaces by considering the
minimal Hausdorff distance of
isometrically embedded versions of
the two spaces. Using this distance,
the class of all (isometry classes of)
compact metric spaces becomes a
metric space in its own right.

Product metric spaces

If are
metric spaces, and N is the
Euclidean norm on Rn, then

is a metric space, where the product

metric is defined by

and the induced topology agrees

with the product topology. By the
equivalence of norms in finite
dimensions, an equivalent metric is
obtained if N is the taxicab norm, a
p-norm, the maximum norm, or any
other norm which is non-decreasing
as the coordinates of a positive n-
tuple increase (yielding the triangle
inequality).

Similarly, a countable product of

metric spaces can be obtained using
the following metric

An uncountable product of metric

spaces need not be metrizable. For
example, is not first-countable
and thus isn't metrizable.

Continuity of distance …

In the case of a single space ,

the distance map
 (from the
definition) is uniformly continuous
with respect to any of the above
product metrics , and in
particular is continuous with respect
to the product topology of .

Quotient metric spaces

If M is a metric space with metric d,
and ~ is an equivalence relation on
M, then we can endow the quotient
set M/~ with a pseudometric. Given
two equivalence classes [x] and [y],
we define
where the infimum is taken over all
finite sequences
and with
, ,
.
In general this will only define a
pseudometric, i.e.
does not necessarily imply that
. However, for some
equivalence relations (e.g., those
given by gluing together polyhedra
along faces), d' is a metric.

The quotient metric d is

characterized by the following
universal property. If
 is a metric
map between metric spaces (that is,
for all x, y)
satisfying f(x)=f(y) whenever
then the induced function
, given by
, is a metric map

A topological space is sequential if

and only if it is a quotient of a metric
space.[9]

Generalizations of metric
spaces
Every metric space is a uniform
space in a natural manner, and
every uniform space is naturally a
topological space. Uniform and
topological spaces can therefore
be regarded as generalizations of
metric spaces.
If we consider the first definition of
a metric space given above and
relax the second requirement, we
arrive at the concepts of a
pseudometric space or a
dislocated metric space.[10] If we
remove the third or fourth, we
arrive at a quasimetric space, or a
semimetric space.
If the distance function takes
values in the extended real
number line R∪{+∞}, but
otherwise satisfies all four
conditions, then it is called an
extended metric and the
corresponding space is called an
-metric space. If the distance
function takes values in some
(suitable) ordered set (and the
triangle inequality is adjusted
accordingly), then we arrive at the
notion of generalized
ultrametric.[10]
Approach spaces are a
generalization of metric spaces,
based on point-to-set distances,
 instead of point-to-point
distances.
A continuity space is a
generalization of metric spaces
and posets, that can be used to
unify the notions of metric spaces
and domains.
A partial metric space is intended
to be the least generalisation of
the notion of a metric space, such
that the distance of each point
from itself is no longer necessarily
zero.[11]

Metric spaces as enriched

categories …
The ordered set can be seen
as a category by requesting exactly
one morphism if and
none otherwise. By using as the
tensor product and as the identity,
it becomes a monoidal category .
Every metric space can now
be viewed as a category
enriched over :

Set
For each set

The composition morphism

will be the unique morphism in

 given from the triangle inequality

The identity morphism

will be the
unique morphism given from the
fact that .
Since is a poset, all diagrams
that are required for an enriched
category commute automatically.

See the paper by F.W. Lawvere listed

below.

See also
Space (mathematics)
Metric (mathematics)
Metric signature
Metric tensor
Metric tree
Norm (mathematics)
Normed vector space
Measure (mathematics)
Hilbert space
Hilbert's fourth problem
Product metric
Aleksandrov–Rassias problem
Category of metric spaces
Classical Wiener space
Glossary of Riemannian and
metric geometry
 Isometry, contraction mapping
and metric map
Lipschitz continuity
Triangle inequality
Ultrametric space

Notes
1. Rendic. Circ. Mat. Palermo 22
(1906) 1–74
2. B. Choudhary (1992). The
Elements of Complex
Analysis . New Age
International. p. 20. ISBN 978-
81-224-0399-2.
3. Nathan Linial. Finite Metric
Spaces—Combinatorics,
 Geometry and Algorithms,
Proceedings of the ICM,
Beijing 2002, vol. 3, pp573–
586 Archived 2018-05-02
at the Wayback Machine
4. Open problems on
embeddings of finite metric
spaces, edited by Jirīı
Matoušek, 2007 Archived
2010-12-26 at the Wayback
Machine
5. Searcóid, p. 107 .
6. "PlanetMath: a compact metric
space is second countable" .
planetmath.org. Archived
from the original on 5 February
 2009. Retrieved 2 May 2018.
7. Rudin, Mary Ellen. A new proof
that metric spaces are
paracompact Archived 2016-
04-12 at the Wayback
Machine. Proceedings of the
American Mathematical
Society, Vol. 20, No. 2. (Feb.,
1969), p. 603.
8. "metric spaces are
Hausdorff" . PlanetMath.
9. Goreham, Anthony. Sequential
convergence in Topological
Spaces Archived 2011-06-
04 at the Wayback Machine.
Honours' Dissertation, Queen's
 College, Oxford (April, 2001),
p. 14
10. Pascal Hitzler; Anthony Seda
(19 April 2016). Mathematical
Aspects of Logic Programming
Semantics . CRC Press.
ISBN 978-1-4398-2962-2.
11. "Partial metrics : welcome" .
www.dcs.warwick.ac.uk.
Archived from the original on
27 July 2017. Retrieved 2 May
2018.

References
Victor Bryant, Metric Spaces:
Iteration and Application,
Cambridge University Press,
1985, ISBN 0-521-31897-1.
Dmitri Burago, Yu D Burago, Sergei
Ivanov, A Course in Metric
Geometry, American
Mathematical Society, 2001,
ISBN 0-8218-2129-6.
Athanase Papadopoulos, Metric
Spaces, Convexity and
Nonpositive Curvature, European
Mathematical Society, First edition
2004, ISBN 978-3-03719-010-4.
Second edition 2014, ISBN 978-
3-03719-132-3.
Mícheál Ó Searcóid , Metric
Spaces , Springer Undergraduate
 Mathematics Series , 2006,
ISBN 1-84628-369-8.
Lawvere, F. William, "Metric
spaces, generalized logic, and
closed categories", [Rend. Sem.
Mat. Fis. Milano 43 (1973), 135—
166 (1974); (Italian summary)

This is reprinted (with author

commentary) at Reprints in Theory
and Applications of Categories Also
(with an author commentary) in
Enriched categories in the logic of
geometry and analysis. Repr. Theory
Appl. Categ. No. 1 (2002), 1–37.

Weisstein, Eric W. "Product

 Metric" . MathWorld.

External links
Hazewinkel, Michiel, ed. (2001)
[1994], "Metric space" ,
Encyclopedia of Mathematics,
Springer Science+Business Media
B.V. / Kluwer Academic Publishers,
ISBN 978-1-55608-010-4
Far and near — several examples
of distance functions at cut-the-
knot.

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