Embedding metric spaces into normed spaces and estimates of metric capacity

Let be an arbitrary real normed space of finite dimension d ≥ 2. We define the metric capacity of as the maximal such that every m-point metric space is isometric to some subset of (with metric induced by ). We obtain that the metric capacity of lies in the range from 3 to , where the lower bound is sharp for all d, and the upper bound is shown to be sharp for d ∈ {2, 3}. Thus, the unknown sharp upper bound is asymptotically linear, since it lies in the range from d + 2 to . Research supported by the German Research Foundation, Project AV 85/1-1.