Around the Petty theorem on equilateral sets

Abstract

The main goal of this paper is to provide an alternative proof of the following theorem of Petty: in the 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 N\'emeth about inscribing a simplex into a convex body. To prove the theorem of Petty, we shall also establish that for every 3 points in the normed plane, forming an equilateral set of the common distance $p$, there exists a fourth point, which is equidistant to the given points with the distance not larger than $p$. We will also improve the example given by Petty and obtain the existence of a smooth and strictly convex norm in $\mathbb{R}^n$, which contain a maximal 4-element equilateral set. This shows that the theorem of Petty cannot be generalized to higher dimensions, even for smooth and strictly convex norms.