Understanding isometric spaces

I have studied that an isometry is a distance-preserving map between metric spaces and two metric spaces $X$ and $Y$ are called isometric if there is a bijective isometry from X to Y.

My questions are related with the understanding of isometric spaces, they are as follows:

Can we say that two isometric spaces are same? If no, in what context they differ? What are the common properties shared by two isometric spaces?

Intuitively what are isometric spaces?

If two spaces are isometric how to find out bijective distance preserving map between them?

Thanks for your help and time.

Solution 1:

Homeomorphisms are the maps that preserve all topological properties: from a structural point of view, homeomorphic spaces might as well be identical, though they may have very different underlying sets, and if they’re metrizable, they may carry very different (but equivalent) metrics. Isometries are the analogue for metric spaces, topological spaces carrying a specific metric: they preserve all metric properties, and of course those include the topological properties. Thus, all isometries are homeomorphisms, but the converse is false.

Consider the metric spaces $\langle X,d_X\rangle$ and $\langle Y,d_Y\rangle$ defined as follows: $X=\Bbb N,Y=\Bbb Z$, $$d_X(m,n)=\begin{cases}0,&\text{if }m=n\\1,&\text{if }m\ne n\;,\end{cases}$$ for all $m,n\in X$, and $$d_Y(m,n)=\begin{cases}0,&\text{if }m=n\\1,&\text{if }m\ne n\end{cases}$$ for all $m,n\in Y$. It’s easy to check that $d_X$ and $d_Y$ are metrics on $X$ and $Y$, respectively.

Clearly these are not the same space: they have different underlying sets. However, if $f:X\to Y$ is any bijection¹ whatsoever, then $f$ is an isometry between $X$ and $Y$. $\langle X,d_X\rangle$ and $\langle Y,d_Y\rangle$ are structurally identical as metric spaces: if $P$ is any property of metric spaces $-$ not just of metrizable spaces, but of metric spaces with a specific metric $-$ then either $X$ and $Y$ both have $P$, or neither of them has $P$. There is no structural property of metric spaces that distinguishes them.

What I just said about $X$ and $Y$ is true of isometric spaces in general: there is no structural property of metric spaces that distinguishes them. Considered as metric spaces, they are structurally identical, though they may have different underlying sets.

Isometric spaces may even have the same underlying set but different metrics. Consider the following two metrics on $\Bbb N=\{0,1,2,\dots\}$. For any $m,n\in\Bbb N$,

$$d_0(m,n)=\begin{cases} 0,&\text{if }m=n\\\\ \left|\frac1m-\frac1n\right|,&\text{if }0\ne m\ne n\ne 0\\\\ \frac1m,&\text{if }n=0<m\\\\ \frac1n,&\text{if }m=0<n\;, \end{cases}$$

and

$$d_1(m,n)=\begin{cases} 0,&\text{if }m=n\\\\ \left|\frac1m-\frac1n\right|,&\text{if }m\ne n\text{ and }m,n>1\\\\ 1-\frac1m,&\text{if }n=0\text{ and }m>1\\\\ 1-\frac1n,&\text{if }m=0\text{ and }n>1\\\\ \frac1m,&\text{if }n=1\ne m\\\\ \frac1n,&\text{if }m=1\ne n\;. \end{cases}$$

It’s a good exercise to show that $$f:\Bbb N\to\Bbb N:n\mapsto\begin{cases}n,&\text{if }n>1\\1,&\text{if }n=0\\0,&\text{if }n=1\end{cases}$$ is an isometry between $\langle\Bbb N,d_0\rangle$ and $\langle\Bbb N,d_1\rangle$. (HINT: Both spaces are isometric to the space $\{0\}\cup\left\{\frac1n:n\in\Bbb Z^+\right\}$ with the usual metric.) Yet these are clearly not the same space: metric $d_0$ makes $0$ a limit point of the other points, but metric $d_1$ makes $0$ an isolated point.

I don’t know of any general method for finding an isometry between isometric spaces; if you can recognize two spaces as being isometric, you probably already have a good idea of what an isometry between them must look like.

¹ If you want a specific bijection, $$f(n)=\begin{cases}0,&\text{if }n=0\\\\\frac{n}2,&\text{if }n>0\text{ and }n\text{ is even}\\\\-\frac{n+1}2,&\text{if }n\text{ is odd}\end{cases}$$ does the job.