Chain development of metric compacts

Abstract

Chain distance between points in a metric space is defined as the infimum of epsilon such that there is an epsilon-chain connecting these points. We call a mapping of a metric compact into the real line a chain development if it preserves chain distances. We give a criterium of existence of the chain development for metric compacts. We prove the diameter of any chain development of a given compact to be the same iff the compact is countable.