We show that if the Szlenk index of a Banach space X is larger than the first infinite ordinal ω or if the Szlenk index of its dual is larger than ω, 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.

The main goal of this paper is to provide an alternative proof of the following theorem of Petty: in a normed space of dimension at least three, every 3-element equilateral set can be extended to a 4-element equilateral set. Our approach is based on the result of Kramer and Németh about inscribing a simplex into a convex body. To prove the theorem of Petty, we shall also establish that for any three points in a normed plane, forming an equilateral triangle of side p, there exists a fourth point,...