Hyperbolizing Metric Spaces

It was proved by M. Bonk, J. Heinonen and P. Koskela that the quasihyperbolic metric hyperbolizes (in the sense of Gromov) uniform metric spaces. In this paper we introduce a new metric that hyperbolizes all locally compact noncomplete metric spaces. The metric is generic in the sense that (1) it can be defined on any metric space; (2) it preserves the quasiconformal geometry of the space; (3) it generalizes the j-metric, the hyperbolic cone metric and the hyperbolic metric of hyperspaces; and (4) it is quasi-isometric to the quasihyperbolic metric of uniform metric spaces. In particular, the Gromov hyperbolicity of these metrics also follows from that of our metric.