For two random variables $X_i$ and $X_j$, I define: $d(X_i,X_j)$ = $\sqrt{2(1-\rho_{i,j})}$ where $\rho_{i,j}$ is the Pearson correlation coefficient. I want to show that d is a pseudometric.
The four axioms can be found here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metric_(mathematics)
The axioms of nonnegativity and of symmetry are trivial. If I am not mistaken, the identity of indiscernibles does not hold because if $X_i = a X_j$, $ \ d(X_i, X_j) = 0$ but $X_i \ne X_j$, that is why I want to show that it is "only" a pseudometric.
My main question is about the triangle inequality. How can I check it holds? If $cor(X,Y) = a$, $cor(Y,Z) = b$ and $cor(X,Z) = c$, by positive semidefiniteness of the correlation matrix you can say that $b \in [ac-\sqrt{(1-a^2)(1-c^2)}, \ ac+\sqrt{(1-a^2)(1-c^2)}]$ (the determinant is positive).
I want to show that $\sqrt{2(1-a)}+\sqrt{2(1-b)} \geq \sqrt{2(1-c)}$
In the "worst" case, $b = ac+\sqrt{(1-a^2)(1-c^2)}$
I tried to study the functions: a $\mapsto \sqrt{2(1-c)} - \sqrt{2(1-a)} - \sqrt{2(1-b)}$ with b replaced by its upper bound - and the same function of c - to show that they are always negative on $[-1,1]^2$ but it soon gets intractable. I could only check the result numerically. I imagine there are much better ways to solve the problem. Do you know any of those?
PS: I have found the thread Is triangle inequality fulfilled for these correlation-based distances? and the answer of ttnphns but I could not find a proof of the fact that if the correlation matrix is PSD then $d$ is Euclidean. Isn't it at odd with the identity of indiscernibles?
a proof of the fact that...d is Euclidean
. But did you see there the link to this? The distance is euclidean because Pearson correlation is the cosine between centered vectors (variables), its formula is the formula of cosine similarity. $\endgroup$