Every compact real tree is isometric to a real tree encoded by an excursion. One construction takes finite subtrees spanning successively finer finite nets, performs depth-first contour traversals of those subtrees, and chooses compatible time parameterizations. The contour functions have a uniformly convergent subsequence, and continuity of excursion coding in the Gromov-Hausdorff distance identifies the limiting coded tree with the original tree.
The multiplicity of in a real tree is the number of connected components of . A point of multiplicity one is a leaf, one of multiplicity two lies in the interior of an unbranched arc, and one of multiplicity at least three is a branch point.
The assertion is false. Join, at one common endpoint , a line segment of length for every positive integer , and use the intrinsic path metric. This is a real tree. It is totally bounded, because outside the first finitely many arms every point lies arbitrarily close to , and it is complete; hence it is compact. Removing leaves one connected component for every arm, so has countably infinite multiplicity of a point in a real tree.
For nonempty compact subsets of a metric space , the Hausdorff distance is
For compact metric spaces , the Gromov-Hausdorff distance is
where and range over isometric embeddings into a common metric space .
The collection of compact real trees is not compact in the Gromov-Hausdorff topology. Indeed, the intervals are compact real trees and
Their diameters are unbounded, so has no convergent subsequence in the Gromov-Hausdorff topology.