Every finite system of T1 uniformities comes from a single distance structure

Abstract

Using the general notion of distance function introduced in an earlier paper, a construction of the finest distance structure which induces a given quasi-uniformity is given. Moreover, when the usual defining condition xy : d(y; x) of the basic entourages is generalized to nd(y; x) n (for a fixed positive integer n), it turns out that if the value-monoid of the distance function is commutative, one gets a countably infinite family of quasi-uniformities on the underlying set. It is then shown that at least every finite system and every descending sequence of T1 quasi-uniformities which fulfil a weak symmetry condition is included in such a family. This is only possible since, in contrast to real metric spaces, the distance function need not be symmetric.