Improved bounds in the scaled Enflo type inequality for Banach spaces

It is shown that if (X,||.||_X) is a Banach space with Rademacher type p \ge 1, then for every integer n there exists an even integer m < Cn^{2-1/p}log n (C is an absolute constant), such that for every f:Z_m^n --> X, \Avg_{x,\e}[||f(x+ m\e/2)-f(x)}||_X^p] < C(p,X) m^p\sum_{j=1}^n\Avg_x[||f(x+e_j)-f(x)||_X^p], where the expectation is with respect to uniformly chosen x \in Z_m^n and \e \in \{-1,1\}^n, and C(p,X) is a constant that depends on p and the Rademacher type constant of X. This improves a bound of m < Cn^{3-2/p} that was obtained in [Mendel, Naor 2007]. The proof is based on an augmentation of the "smoothing and approximation" scheme, which was implicit in [Mendel, Naor 2007]

Nearest points and delta convex functions in Banach spaces

Given a closed set $C$ in a Banach space $(X, \|\cdot\|)$, a point $x\in X$ is said to have a nearest point in $C$ if there exists $z\in C$ such that $d_C(x) =\|x-z\|$, where $d_C$ is the distance of $x$ from $C$. We shortly survey the problem of studying how large is the set of points in $X$ which have nearest points in $C$. We then discuss the topic of delta-convex functions and how it is related to finding nearest points.Comment: To appear in Bull. Aust. Math. So

Bourgain's discretization theorem

Bourgain's discretization theorem asserts that there exists a universal constant $C\in (0,\infty)$ with the following property. Let $X,Y$ be Banach spaces with $\dim X=n$. Fix $D\in (1,\infty)$ and set $\delta= e^{-n^{Cn}}$. Assume that $\mathcal N$ is a $\delta$-net in the unit ball of $X$ and that $\mathcal N$ admits a bi-Lipschitz embedding into $Y$ with distortion at most $D$. Then the entire space $X$ admits a bi-Lipschitz embedding into $Y$ with distortion at most $CD$. This mostly expository article is devoted to a detailed presentation of a proof of Bourgain's theorem. We also obtain an improvement of Bourgain's theorem in the important case when $Y=L_p$ for some $p\in [1,\infty)$: in this case it suffices to take $\delta= C^{-1}n^{-5/2}$ for the same conclusion to hold true. The case $p=1$ of this improved discretization result has the following consequence. For arbitrarily large $n\in \mathbb{N}$ there exists a family $\mathscr Y$ of $n$-point subsets of ${1,...,n}^2\subseteq \mathbb{R}^2$ such that if we write $|\mathscr Y|= N$ then any $L_1$ embedding of $\mathscr Y$, equipped with the Earthmover metric (a.k.a. transportation cost metric or minimumum weight matching metric) incurs distortion at least a constant multiple of $\sqrt{\log\log N}$; the previously best known lower bound for this problem was a constant multiple of $\sqrt{\log\log \log N}$.Comment: Proof of Lemma 5.1 corrected; its statement remains unchange

Improved bounds in the metric cotype inequality for Banach spaces

It is shown that if (X, ||.||_X) is a Banach space with Rademacher cotype q then for every integer n there exists an even integer m< n^{1+1/q}$such that for every f:Z_m^n --> X we have$\sum_{j=1}^n \Avg_x [ ||f(x+ (m/2) e_j)-f(x) ||_X^q ] < C m^q \Avg_{\e,x} [ ||f(x+\e)-f(x) ||_X^q ]$, where the expectations are with respect to uniformly chosen x\in Z_m^n and \e\in \{-1,0,1\}^n, and all the implied constants may depend only on q and the Rademacher cotype q constant of X. This improves the bound of m< n^{2+\frac{1}{q}} from [Mendel, Naor 2008]. The proof of the above inequality is based on a "smoothing and approximation" procedure which simplifies the proof of the metric characterization of Rademacher cotype of [Mendel, Naor 2008]. We also show that any such "smoothing and approximation" approach to metric cotype inequalities must require m> n^{(1/2)+(1/q)}.Comment: 27 pages, 1 figure. Fixes a slight error in the proof of Lemma 4.3 in the arXiv v2 and the published pape

Improved bounds in the scaled Enflo type inequality for Banach Spaces

It is shown that if (X; ∥ · ∥X) is a Banach space with Rademacher type p ≥ 1 then for every n ∈ N there exists an even integer m . ≲n2-1/p log n such that for every f : ℤₘⁿ → X, Ex;" [ ‖f ( x + m /2 ℰ ) − f(x)‖ₓₚ] .≲X mp Σn j=1 Ex [ ∥f(x + ej) − f(x)∥p X ] ; where the expectation is with respect to uniformly chosen x ∈ ℤₘⁿ and " ∈ {−1; 1}ⁿ. This improves a bounds of m ≲ n₃⁻₂/ₚ=p that was obtained in [7]. The proof is based on an augmentation of the \smoothing and approximation" scheme, which was implicit in [7].peerReviewe