A Unified Framework for Generalizing the Gromov-Hausdorff Metric

Abstract: In this paper, an approach for generalizing the Gromov-Hausdorff metric is presented, which applies to metric spaces equipped with some additional structure. A special case is the Gromov-Hausdorff-Prokhorov metric between measured metric spaces. This abstract framework unifies several existing Gromov-Hausdorff-type metrics for metric spaces equipped with a measure, a point, a closed subset, a curve, a tuple of such structures, etc. Along with reviewing these special cases in the literature, several new examples are also presented. Two frameworks are provided, one for compact metric spaces and the other for boundedly-compact pointed metric spaces. In both cases, a Gromov-Hausdorff-type metric is defined and its topological properties are studied. In particular, completeness and separability is proved under some conditions. This enables one to study random metric spaces equipped with additional structures, which is the main motivation of this work.