Distance structures for generalized metric spaces (1502.05002v3)

Abstract: Let $\mathcal{R}=(R,\oplus,\leq,0)$ be an algebraic structure, where $\oplus$ is a commutative binary operation with identity $0$, and $\leq$ is a translation-invariant total order with least element $0$. Given a distinguished subset $S\subseteq R$, we define the natural notion of a "generalized" $\mathcal{R}$-metric space, with distances in $S$. We study such metric spaces as first-order structures in a relational language consisting of a distance inequality for each element of $S$. We first construct an ordered additive structure $\mathcal{S}^*$ on the space of quantifier-free $2$-types consistent with the axioms of $\mathcal{R}$-metric spaces with distances in $S$, and show that, if $A$ is an $\mathcal{R}$-metric space with distances in $S$, then any model of $\text{Th}(A)$ logically inherits a canonical $\mathcal{S}^*$-metric. Our primary application of this framework concerns countable, universal, and homogeneous metric spaces, obtained as generalizations of the rational Urysohn space. We adapt previous work of Delhomm\'{e}, Laflamme, Pouzet, and Sauer to fully characterize the existence of such spaces. We then fix a countable totally ordered commutative monoid $\mathcal{R}$, with least element $0$, and consider $\mathcal{U}\mathcal{R}$, the countable Urysohn space over $\mathcal{R}$. We show that quantifier elimination for $\text{Th}(\mathcal{U}\mathcal{R})$ is characterized by continuity of addition in $\mathcal{R}^*$, which can be expressed as a first-order sentence of $\mathcal{R}$ in the language of ordered monoids. Finally, we analyze an example of Casanovas and Wagner in this context.