- METRIC SPACES AND LENGTH SPACES
(2) If f: (X, dx) --+ (Y, dy) is an E-isometry, then
daH ((X, dx), (Y, dy )) < 2c.
395
REMARK G.13. There is an exact relation between the Gromov-Haus-
dorff distance and the distortion of correspondences (see Theorem 7.3.25
of [18]; the definition of 'correspondence' is on p. 256 of [18]).
We say that a sequence of metric spaces {(Xi, dxi)}iEN converges in
the Gromov-Hausdorff distance to a metric space (Y, dy) if
i--+oo _lim daH ((Xi,dxJ, (Y,dy)) = 0.
1.2.2. Gromov-Hausdorff distance between pointed metric spaces.
When the metric spaces under discussion may be unbounded, we con-
sider pointed metric spaces obtained by adding a basepoint to the metric
space and we modify the definition of distance between them.^8 A (pointed)
map f : (X, xo) --+ (Y, Yo) is a map f : X--+ Y with f (xo) =YO·
The following is Definition 1.6 in [63].
DEFINITION G.14 (Approximate pointed isometries). Let (X,dx,xo)
and (Y, dy, Yo) be two pointed metric spaces. A map f : (X, xo) --+ (Y, yo)
is called an E-approximate pointed isometry (or E-pointed Hausdorff
approximation) if
(1)
(G.8)
(2)
(G.9)
for all x1,x2 E Bx (xo,E-^1 ).
The pointed Gromov-Hausdorff distance
d~H ((X, dx, xo), (Y, dy, Yo))
between two pointed metric spaces is defined to be the infimum over all
E > 0 such that there exist E-approximate pointed isometries from (X, xo)
to (Y, Yo) and from (Y, Yo) to (X, xo).^9
Note that for any x E Bx (xo,E-^1 ) we have
ldy (! (x), Yo) - dx (x, xo)I < E.
This implies that
(^8) We are interested in pointed spaces because solutions to the Ricci flow on noncompact
manifolds arise in the singularity theory of solutions of the Ricci flow on closed manifolds.
(^9) Note that when both (X, dx) and (Y, dy, yo) have bounded diameter, the pointed
Gromov-Hausdorff distance does not necessarily agree with the Gromov-Hausdorff
distance.