Averaging distances in real quasihypermetric Banach spaces of finite dimension

The average distance theorem of Gross implies that for each realN-dimensional Banach space (N≥2) there is a unique positive real numberr(E) with the following property: For each positive integern and for all (not necessarily distinct)x ₁,x ₂, …,x _n inE with ‖x ₁‖=‖x ₂‖=…=‖x _n‖=1, there exists anx inE with ‖x‖=1 such that The main result of this paper shows, thatr(E)≤2−1/N for each realN-dimensional Banach spaceE (N≥2) with the so-called quasihypermetric property (which is equivalent toE isL ¹-embeddable). Moreover, equality holds if and only ifE is isometrically isomorphic to ℝ ^N equipped with the usual 1-norm.