Metric transforms yielding Gromov hyperbolic spaces

Abstract

A real valued function $\varphi$ of one variable is called a metric transform if for every metric space $(X,d)$ the composition $d_\varphi = \varphi\circ d$ is also a metric on $X$. We give a complete characterization of the class of approximately nondecreasing, unbounded metric transforms $\varphi$ such that the transformed Euclidean half line $([0,\infty),|\cdot|_\varphi)$ is Gromov hyperbolic. As a consequence, we obtain metric transform rigidity for roughly geodesic Gromov hyperbolic spaces, that is, if $(X,d)$ is any metric space containing a rough geodesic ray and $\varphi$ is an approximately nondecreasing, unbounded metric transform such that the transformed space $(X,d_\varphi)$ is Gromov hyperbolic and roughly geodesic then $\varphi$ is an approximate dilation and the original space $(X,d)$ is Gromov hyperbolic and roughly geodesic.