For every $p\in (0,\infty )$ we associate to every metric space $(X,d_{X})$ a numerical invariant $\mathfrak{X}_{p}(X)\in [0,\infty ]$ such that if $\mathfrak{X}_{p}(X)<\infty$ and a metric space $(Y,d_{Y})$ admits a bi-Lipschitz embedding into $X$ then also $\mathfrak{X}_{p}(Y)<\infty$ . We prove that if $p,q\in (2,\infty )$ satisfy $q<p$ then $\mathfrak{X}_{p}(L_{p})<\infty$ yet $\mathfrak{X}_{p}(L_{q})=\infty$ . Thus, our new bi-Lipschitz invariant certifies that $L_{q}$ does not admit a bi-Lipschitz embedding into $L_{p}$ when $2<q<p<\infty$ . This completes the long-standing search for bi-Lipschitz invariants that serve as an obstruction to the embeddability of $L_{p}$ spaces into each other, the previously understood cases of which were metric notions of type and cotype, which however fail to certify the nonembeddability of $L_{q}$ into $L_{p}$ when $2<q<p<\infty$ . Among the consequences of our results are new quantitative restrictions on the bi-Lipschitz embeddability into $L_{p}$ of snowflakes of $L_{q}$ and integer grids in $\ell _{q}^{n}$ , for $2<q<p<\infty$ . As a byproduct of our investigations, we also obtain results on the geometry of the Schatten $p$ trace class $S_{p}$ that are new even in the linear setting.

the analytic concepts of martingale type $p$ and cotype $q$ of a banach space have an intimate relation with the geometric concepts of $p$-concavity and $q$-convexity of the space under consideration, as shown by pisier. in particular, for a banach space $x$, having martingale type $p$ for some $p{>}1$ implies that $x$ has martingale cotype $q$ for some $q{<}\infty$.

the generalisation of these concepts to linear operators was studied by the author, and it turns out that the duality above only holds in a weaker form. an example is constructed showing that this duality result is best possible.

so-called random martingale unconditionality estimates, introduced by garling as a decoupling of the unconditional martingale differences (umd) inequality, are also examined.

it is shown that the random martingale unconditionality constant of $l_\infty^{2^n}$ for martingales of length $n$ asymptotically behaves like $n$. this improves previous estimates by geiss, who needed martingales of length $2^n$ to show this asymptotic. at the same time the order in the paper is the best that can be expected.