On some low distortion metric Ramsey problems

Loading...
Thumbnail Image

Date

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Abstract

Description

In this note, we consider the metric Ramsey problem for the normed spaces l_p. Namely, given some 1<=p<=infinity and alpha>=1, and an integer n, we ask for the largest m such that every n-point metric space contains an m-point subspace which embeds into l_p with distortion at most alpha. In [arXiv:math.MG/0406353] it is shown that in the case of l_2, the dependence of $m$ on alpha undergoes a phase transition at alpha=2. Here we consider this problem for other l_p, and specifically the occurrence of a phase transition for p other than 2. It is shown that a phase transition does occur at alpha=2 for every p in the interval [1,2]. For p>2 we are unable to determine the answer, but estimates are provided for the possible location of such a phase transition. We also study the analogous problem for isometric embedding and show that for every 1<p<infinity there are arbitrarily large metric spaces, no four points of which embed isometrically in l_p.
14 pages, to be published in Discrete and Computational Geometry

Citation

Collections