Nonembeddability theorems via Fourier analysis

Various new nonembeddability results (mainly into L/sub 1/) are proved via Fourier analysis. In particular, it is shown that the edit distance on {0, 1}/sup d/ has L/sub 1/ distortion (log d)/sup 1/2 - o(1)/. We also give new lower bounds on the L/sub 1/ distortion of quotients of the discrete hypercube under group actions, and the transportation cost (Earthmover) metric.