Metrics and quasimetrics induced by point pair function

Abstract

We study the point pair function in subdomains $G$ of $\mathbb{R}^n$. We prove that, for every domain $G\subsetneq\mathbb{R}^n$, the this function is a quasi-metric with the constant less than or equal to $\sqrt{5}\slash2$. Moreover, we show that it is a metric in the domain $G=\mathbb{R}^n\setminus\{0\}$ with $n\geq1$. We also consider generalized versions of the point pair function, depending on an arbitrary constant $\alpha>0$, and show that in some domains these generalizations are metrics if and only if $\alpha\leq12$.