Metric spaces admitting only trivial weak contractions
If (X,d) is a metric space then a map f: X → X is defined to be a weak contraction if d(f(x),f(y)) < d(x,y) for all x,y ∈ X, x ≠ y. We determine the simplest non-closed sets X ⊆ ℝⁿ in the sense of descriptive set-theoretic complexity such that every weak contraction f: X → X is constant. In order to do so, we prove that there exists a non-closed set F ⊆ ℝ such that every weak contraction f: F → F is constant. Similarly, there exists a non-closed set G ⊆ ℝ such that every weak contraction...