Circumcenters in Finsler unitary groups

Abstract

We study convexity properties of distance functions in Finsler unitary groups, where the Finsler structure is defined by translation of the $p$-Schatten norm on the Lie algebra. As a result we prove the existence of circumcenters for sets with radius less than $\pi/2$ in several metrics. This result is applied to a fixed point property and to quantitative metric bounds in certain rigidity problems. Bounds for convexity, existence of circumcenters and rigidity are shown to be optimal.