Operators between subspaces and quotients of L1

We provide an unified approach of results of L. Dor on the complementation of the range, and of D. Alspach on the nearness from isometries, of small into isomorphisms of L1. We introduce the notion of small subspace of L1 and show lifting theorems for operators between quotients of L1 by small subspaces. We construct a subspace of L1 which shows that extension of isometries from subspaces of L1 to the whole space are no longer true for isomorphisms, and that nearly isometric isomorphisms from subspaces of L1 into L1 need not be near from any isometry.Comment: 35 page

A new metric invariant for Banach spaces

We show that if the Szlenk index of a Banach space $X$ is larger than the first infinite ordinal $\omega$ or if the Szlenk index of its dual is larger than $\omega$, then the tree of all finite sequences of integers equipped with the hyperbolic distance metrically embeds into $X$. We show that the converse is true when $X$ is assumed to be reflexive. As an application, we exhibit new classes of Banach spaces that are stable under coarse-Lipschitz embeddings and therefore under uniform homeomorphisms.Comment: 22 page