Some Results on Metric Trees

Using isometric embedding of metric trees into Banach spaces, this paper will investigate barycenters, type and cotype, and various measures of compactness of metric trees. A metric tree (T , d) is a metric space such that between any two of its points there is an unique arc that is isometric to an interval in R. We begin our investigation by examining isometric embeddings of metric trees into Banach spaces. We then investigate the possible images x0 = π((x1 + . . .+xn)/n), where π is a contractive retraction from the ambient Banach space X onto T (such a π always exists), in order to understand the “metric” barycenter of a family of points x1, . . . , xn in a tree T . Further, we consider the metric properties of trees (such as their type and cotype). We identify various measures of compactness of metric trees (their covering numbers, 2-entropy and Kolmogorov widths) and the connections between them. Additionally, we prove that the limit of the sequence of the Kolmogorov widths of a metric tree is equal to its ball measure of non-compactness.