We prove that if the set of unordered pairs of real numbers is coloured by finitely many colours, there is a set of reals homeomorphic to the rationals whose pairs have at most two colours. Our proof uses large cardinals and verifies a conjecture of Galvin from the 1970s. We extend this result to an essentially optimal class of topological spaces in place of the reals.

Let $X\left( n \right)$, for $n\,\in \,\mathbb{N}$, be the set of all subsets of a metric space $\left( x,\,d \right)$ of cardinality at most $n$. The set $X\left( n \right)$ equipped with the Hausdorff metric is called a finite subset space. In this paper we are concerned with the existence of Lipschitz retractions $r:\,X\left( n \right)\,\to \,X\left( n\,-\,1 \right)$ for $n\,\ge \,2$. It is known that such retractions do not exist if $X$ is the one-dimensional sphere. On the other hand, Kovalev has recently established their existence if $X$ is a Hilbert space, and he also posed a question as to whether or not such Lipschitz retractions exist when $X$ is a Hadamard space. In this paper we answer the question in the positive.

We give a full description of the structure under inclusion of all finite level Borel classes of functions, and provide an elementary proof of the well-known fact that not every Borel function can be written as a countable union of Σα0-measurable functions (for every fixed 1 ≤ α < ω1). Moreover, we present some results concerning those Borel functions which are ω-decomposable into continuous functions (also called countably continuous functions in the literature): such results should be viewed as a contribution towards the goal of generalizing a remarkable theorem of Jayne and Rogers to all finite levels, and in fact they allow us to prove some restricted forms of such generalizations. We also analyze finite level Borel functions in terms of composition of simpler functions, and we finally present an application to Banach space theory.

Motivated by a classical theorem of Schoenberg, we prove that an n + 1 point finite metric space has strict 2-negative type if and only if it can be isometrically embedded in the Euclidean space $\mathbb{R}^{n}$ of dimension n but it cannot be isometrically embedded in any Euclidean space $\mathbb{R}^{r}$ of dimension r < n. We use this result as a technical tool to study ‘roundness’ properties of additive metrics with a particular focus on ultrametrics and leaf metrics. The following conditions are shown to be equivalent for a metric space (X,d): (1) X is ultrametric, (2) X has infinite roundness, (3) X has infinite generalized roundness, (4) X has strict p-negative type for all p ≥ 0 and (5) X admits no p-polygonal equality for any p ≥ 0. As all ultrametric spaces have strict 2-negative type by (4) we thus obtain a short new proof of Lemin's theorem: Every finite ultrametric space is isometrically embeddable into some Euclidean space as an affinely independent set. Motivated by a question of Lemin, Shkarin introduced the class $\mathcal{M}$ of all finite metric spaces that may be isometrically embedded into ℓ2 as an affinely independent set. The results of this paper show that Shkarin's class $\mathcal{M}$ consists of all finite metric spaces of strict 2-negative type. We also note that it is possible to construct an additive metric space whose generalized roundness is exactly ℘ for each ℘ ∈ [1, ∞].

An example is given of a map $f$ defined between arcwise connected continua such that $C(f)$ is light and ${{2}^{f}}$ is not light, giving a negative answer to a question of Charatonik and Charatonik. Furthermore, given a positive integer $n$, we study when the lightness of the induced map ${{2}^{f}}$ or ${{C}_{n}}(f)$ implies that $f$ is a homeomorphism. Finally, we show a result in relation with the lightness of $C(C(f))$.

We consider the problem of simultaneous extension of continuous convex metrics defined on subcontinua of a Peano continuum. We prove that there is an extension operator for convex metrics that is continuous with respect to the uniform topology.

The classical Ramsey theorem states that every graph contains either a large clique or a large independent set. Here similar dichotomic phenomena are investigated in the context of finite metric spaces. Namely, statements are provided of the form ‘every finite metric space contains a large subspace that is nearly equilateral or far from being equilateral’. Two distinct interpretations are considered for being ‘far from equilateral’. Proximity among metric spaces is quantified through the metric distortion $\alpha$. Tight asymptotic answers are provided for these problems. In particular, it is shown that a phase transition occurs at $\alpha=2$.

In this paper we show that the Lorentz space Lw, 1(0, ∞) has the weak-star uniform Kadec-Klee property if and only if inft>0 (w(αt)/w(t)) > 1 and supt>0(φ(αt) / φ(t))< 1 for all α ∈ (0, 1), where φ(t) = ∫t0 w(s) ds.

Peano continua which are images of the unit interval [0,1] or the circle S under a continuous and irreducible map are investigated. Necessary conditions for a space to be the irreducible image of [0,1] are given, and it is conjectured that these conditions are sufficient as well. Also, various results on irreducible images of [0,1] and S are given within some classes of regular curves. Some of them involve inverse limits of inverse sequences of Euler graphs with monotone bonding maps.

We propose an analogue of the Banach contraction principle for connected compact Hausdorff spaces. We define a J-contraction of a connected compact Hausdorff space. We show that every contraction of a compact metric space is a J-contraction and that any J-contraction of a compact metrizable space is a contraction for some admissible metric. We show that every J-contraction has a unique fixed point and that the orbit of each point converges to this fixed point.