Generalized metrics and Caristi’s theorem

Abstract

A ‘generalized metric space’ is a semimetric space which does not satisfy the triangle inequality, but which satisfies a weaker assumption called the quadrilateral inequality. After reviewing various related axioms, it is shown that Caristi’s theorem holds in complete generalized metric spaces without further assumptions. This is noteworthy because Banach’s fixed point theorem seems to require more than the quadrilateral inequality, and because standard proofs of Caristi’s theorem require the triangle inequality. MSC:54H25, 47H10.