On quasi-isometry and choice

Abstract

In this note we prove that the symmetry of the quasi-isometry relation implies the axiom of choice, even when the relation is restricted to geodesic hyperbolic spaces. We show that this result is sharp by demonstrating that symmetry of quasi-isometry in an even more restrictive setting does not imply the axiom of choice. The "Bottleneck Theorem" of Jason Fox Manning also implies choice.