Coarse embeddings of metric spaces into Banach spaces

There are several characterizations of coarse embeddability of locally finite metric spaces into a Hilbert space. In this note we give such characterizations for general metric spaces. By applying these results to the spaces $L_p(\mu)$, we get their coarse embeddability into a Hilbert space for $0<p<2$. This together with a theorem by Banach and Mazur yields that coarse embeddability into $\ell_2$ and into $L_p(0,1)$ are equivalent when $1 \le p<2$. A theorem by G.Yu and the above allow us to extend to $L_p(\mu)$, $0<p\le 2$, the range of spaces, coarse embeddings into which is guaranteed for a finitely generated group $\Gamma$ to satisfy the Novikov Conjecture.