On Protected Quasi-Metrics

In this paper, we introduce and examine the notion of a protected quasi-metric. In particular, we give some of its properties and present several examples of distinguished topological spaces that admit a compatible protected quasi-metric, such as the Alexandroff spaces, the Sorgenfrey line, the Michael line, and the Khalimsky line, among others. Our motivation is due, in part, to the fact that a successful improvement of the classical Banach fixed-point theorem obtained by Suzuki does not admit a natural and full quasi-metric extension, as we have noted in a recent article. Thus, and with the help of this new structure, we obtained a fixed-point theorem in the framework of Smyth-complete quasi-metric spaces that generalizes Suzuki's theorem. Combining right completeness with partial ordering properties, we also obtained a variant of Suzuki's theorem, which was applied to discuss types of difference equations and recurrence equations.