Banach spaces in various positions

We formulate a general theory of positions for subspaces of a Banach space: we define equivalent and isomorphic positions, study the automorphy index a(Y,X) that measures how many non-equivalent positions Y admits in X, and obtain estimates of a(Y,X) for X a classical Banach space such as ?p,Lp,L₁,C(ωω) or C[0,1]. Then, we study different aspects of the automorphic space problem posed by Lindenstrauss and Rosenthal; namely, does there exist a separable automorphic space different from c₀ or ?₂? Recall that a Banach space X is said to be automorphic if every subspace Y admits only one position in X; i.e., a(Y,X)=1 for every subspace Y of X. We study the notion of extensible space and uniformly finitely extensible space (UFO), which are relevant since every automorphic space is extensible and every extensible space is UFO. We obtain a dichotomy theorem: Every UFO must be either an L_∞-space or a weak type 2 near-Hilbert space with the Maurey projection property. We show that a Banach space all of whose subspaces are UFO (called hereditarily UFO spaces) must be asymptotically Hilbertian; while a Banach space for which both X and X^∗ are UFO must be weak Hilbert. We then refine the dichotomy theorem for Banach spaces with some additional structure. In particular, we show that an UFO with unconditional basis must be either c₀ or a superreflexive weak type 2 space; that a hereditarily UFO Köthe function space must be Hilbert; and that a rearrangement invariant space UFO must be either L_∞ or a superreflexive type 2 Banach lattice.     

A note on Banach spaces containing c0 or C∞

It is shown that every separable Banach space X containing a subspace isomorphic to c₀ has a subspace Y with basis such that $\text{X}\text{Y}\text{~}\text{c}{}_0\text{C}{}_{\mathrm{\infty }}$ and the latter space has a shrinking basis and an unconditional FDD. Moreover, it is shown that X ⊕ C_∞ has a basis if X has the bounded approximation property.     

Isometric embeddings of compact spaces into Banach spaces

We show the existence of a compact metric space K such that whenever K embeds isometrically into a Banach space Y, then any separable Banach space is linearly isometric to a subspace of Y. We also address the following related question: if a Banach space Y contains an isometric copy of the unit ball or of some special compact subset of a separable Banach space X, does it necessarily contain a subspace isometric to X? We answer positively this question when X is a polyhedral finite-dimensional space, c₀ or ?₁.     

A class of Banach spaces with few non-strictly singular operators

We construct a family (X_γ) of reflexive Banach spaces with long (countable as well as uncountable) transfinite bases but with no unconditional basic sequences. The method we introduce to achieve this allows us to considerably control the structure of subspaces of the resulting spaces as well as to precisely describe the corresponding spaces on non-strictly singular operators. For example, for every pair of countable ordinals γ,β, we are able to decompose every bounded linear operator from X_γ to X_β as the sum of a diagonal operator and an strictly singular operator. We also show that every finite-dimensional subspace of any member X_γ of our class can be moved by and (4+?)-isomorphism to essentially any region of any other member X_δ or our class. Finally, we find subspaces X of X_γ such that the operator space L(X,X_γ) is quite rich but any bounded operator T from X into X is a strictly singular pertubation of a scalar multiple of the identity.     

Banach spaces without local unconditional structure

For a large class of Banach spaces, a general construction of subspaces without local unconditional structure is presented. As an application it is shown that every Banach space of finite cotype contains eitherl ₂ or a subspace without unconditional basis, which admits a Schauder basis. Some other interesting applications and corollaries follow. The contribution of this author is a part of his Ph.D. Thesis written at the University of Alberta under the supervision of the second author. An erratum to this article is available at .     

Fodor-type Reflection Principle and reflection of metrizability and meta-Lindelöfness

We introduce a new reflection principle which we call “Fodor-type Reflection Principle” (FRP). This principle follows from but is strictly weaker than Fleissner's Axiom R. For instance, FRP does not impose any restriction on the size of the continuum, while Axiom R implies that the continuum has size ?ℵ₂.We show that FRP implies that every locally separable countably tight topological space X is meta-Lindelöf if all of its subspaces of cardinality ?ℵ₁ are (Theorem 4.3). It follows that, under FRP, every locally (countably) compact space is metrizable if all of its subspaces of cardinality ?ℵ₁ are (Corollary 4.4). This improves a result of Balogh who proved the same assertion under Axiom R.We also give several other results in this vein, some in ZFC, others in some further extension of ZFC. For example, we prove in ZFC that if X is a locally (countably) compact space of singular cardinality in which every subspace of smaller size is metrizable then X itself is also metrizable (Corollary 5.2).     

Espaces de Banach superstables,distances stables et homeomorphismes uniformes

We introduce here the notion of superstable Banach space, as the superproperty associated with the stability property of J. L. Krivine and B. Maurey. IfE is superstable, so are theL ^p (E) for eachp∈[1, +∞[. If the Banach spaceX uniformly imbeds into a superstable Banach space, then there exists an equivalent invariant superstable distance onX; as a consequenceX contains subspaces isomorphic tol ^p spaces (for somep∈[1, ∞[). We give also a generalization of a result of P. Enflo: the unit ball ofc ₀ does not uniformly imbed into any stable Banach space.     

On the number of permutatively inequivalent basic sequences in a Banach space

Let X be a Banach space with a Schauder basis (en)_n∈N. The relation E₀ is Borel reducible to permutative equivalence between normalized block-sequences of (en)_n∈N or X is c₀ or ?p saturated for some 1?p<+∞. If (en)_n∈N is shrinking unconditional then either it is equivalent to the canonical basis of c₀ or ?p, 1<p<+∞, or the relation E₀ is Borel reducible to permutative equivalence between sequences of normalized disjoint blocks of X or of X^∗. If (en)_n∈N is unconditional, then either X is isomorphic to ?₂, or X contains ω² subspaces or ω² quotients which are spanned by pairwise permutatively inequivalent normalized unconditional bases.     

Computability of finite-dimensional linear subspaces and best approximation

We discuss computability properties of the set P_G(x) of elements of best approximation of some point x∈X by elements of G⊆X in computable Banach spaces X. It turns out that for a general closed set G, given by its distance function, we can only obtain negative information about P_G(x) as a closed set. In the case that G is finite-dimensional, one can compute negative information on P_G(x) as a compact set. This implies that one can compute the point in P_G(x) whenever it is uniquely determined. This is also possible for a wider class of subsets G, given that one imposes additionally convexity properties on the space. If the Banach space X is computably uniformly convex and G is convex, then one can compute the uniquely determined point in P_G(x). We also discuss representations of finite-dimensional subspaces of Banach spaces and we show that a basis representation contains the same information as the representation via distance functions enriched by the dimension. Finally, we study computability properties of the dimension and the codimension map and we show that for finite-dimensional spaces X the dimension is computable, given the distance function of the subspace.     

Genericity and amalgamation of classes of Banach spaces

We study universality problems in Banach space theory. We show that if A is an analytic class, in the Effros-Borel structure of subspaces of C([0,1]), of non-universal separable Banach spaces, then there exists a non-universal separable Banach space Y, with a Schauder basis, that contains isomorphs of each member of A with the bounded approximation property. The proof is based on the amalgamation technique of a class C of separable Banach spaces, introduced in the paper. We show, among others, that there exists a separable Banach space R not containing L¹(0,1) such that the indices β and rND are unbounded on the set of Baire-1 elements of the ball of the double dual R∗∗ of R. This answers two questions of H.P. Rosenthal.We also introduce the concept of a strongly bounded class of separable Banach spaces. A class C of separable Banach spaces is strongly bounded if for every analytic subset A of C there exists Y∈C that contains all members of A up to isomorphism. We show that several natural classes of separable Banach spaces are strongly bounded, among them the class of non-universal spaces with a Schauder basis, the class of reflexive spaces with a Schauder basis, the class of spaces with a shrinking Schauder basis and the class of spaces with Schauder basis not containing a minimal Banach space X.     

On solutions to the Schroeder-Bernstein problem for Banach spaces

We investigate the geometry of the Banach spaces failing Schroeder-Bernstein Property (SBP). Initially we prove that every complex hereditarily indecomposable Banach space H is isomorphic to a complemented subspace of a Banach space S(H) that fails SBP in such a way that the only complemented hereditarily indecomposable subspaces of S(H) are those which are nearly isomorphic to H. Then we show that every Banach space having Mazur property is isomorphic to some complemented subspace of a Banach space which is not isomorphic to its square but isomorphic to its cube. Finally, we prove that if a Banach space X fails SBP then either it is not primary or the Grothendieck group K₀(L(X)) of the algebra of operators on X is not trivial.     

Minimal subspaces and isomorphically homogeneous sequences in a Banach space

If a Banach space is saturated with subspaces with a Schauder basis, which embed into the linear span of any subsequence of their basis, then it contains a minimal subspace. It follows that any Banach space is either ergodic or contains a minimal subspace.     

On Subspaces and Quotients of Banach Spaces C(K, X)

 We study the relation of to the subspaces and quotients of Banach spaces of continuous vector-valued functions , where K is an arbitrary dispersed compact set. More precisely, we prove that every infinite dimensional closed subspace of totally incomparable to X contains a copy of complemented in . This is a natural continuation of results of Cembranos-Freniche and Lotz-Peck-Porta. We also improve our result when K is homeomorphic to an interval of ordinals. Next we show that complemented subspaces (resp., quotients) of which contain no copy of are isomorphic to complemented subspaces (resp., quotients) of some finite sum of X. As a consequence, we prove that every infinite dimensional quotient of which is quotient incomparable to X, contains a complemented copy of . Finally we present some more geometric properties of spaces. Received 8 November 2000; in revised form 7 December 2001     

Complementably universal Banach spaces, II

The two main results are:

A.

If a Banach space X is complementably universal for all subspaces of c₀ which have the bounded approximation property, then X^∗ is non-separable (and hence X does not embed into c₀).

B.

There is no separable Banach space X such that every compact operator (between Banach spaces) factors through X.

Theorem B solves a problem that dates from the 1970s.     

Bidual renormings of Banach spaces

Given a separable Banach space X with no isomorphic copies of ℓ₁ and a separable subspace Y of its bidual, we provide a sufficient condition on Y to ensure that X admits an equivalent norm such that the restriction to Y of the corresponding bidual norm is midpoint locally uniformly rotund. This result applies to the separable subspaces of the bidual of a Banach space with a shrinking unconditional Schauder basis and to the bidual of the James space.     

A remark on unconditional basic sequences inL p (1<p<∞)

We prove that every separable ? _p space (1<p<∞), with an unconditional basis is isomorphic to a complemented subspace ofL _p which is spanned by a block basis of the Haar system.     

A Solution to Banach's Hyperplane Problem

An infinite-dimensional Banach space X is constructed whichis not isomorphic to X R. Equivalently, X is not isomorphicto any of its closed subspaces of codimension one. This givesa negative answer to a question of Banach. In fact, X has thestronger property that it is not isomorphic to any proper subspace.It also happens to have an unconditional basis.     

Finite representability ofl p(X) in Orlicz function spaces

We show that ifl _p(X),p ≠ 2, is finitely crudely representable in an Orlicz spaceL _ϕ (which does not containc ₀) then the Banach spaceX is isomorphic to a subspace ofL _p. The same remains true forp = 2 whenL _ϕ is 2-concave or 2-convex, or ifX has local unconditional structure. We extend a theorem of Guerre and Levy to Orlicz function spaces.     

Exact and explicit analytic solutions of an extended Jabotinsky functional differential equation

A Banach space X will be called extensible if every operator E → X from a subspace E ⊂ X can be extended to an operator X → X. Denote by dens X. The smallest cardinal of a subset of X whose linear span is dense in X, the space X will be called automorphic when for every subspace E ⊂ X every into isomorphism T: E → X for which dens X/E = dens X/TE can be extended to an automorphism X → X. Lindenstrauss and Rosenthal proved that c ₀ is automorphic and conjectured that c ₀ and ℓ₂ are the only separable automorphic spaces. Moreover, they ask about the extensible or automorphic character of c ₀(Γ), for Γ uncountable. That c ₀(Γ) is extensible was proved by Johnson and Zippin, and we prove here that it is automorphic and that, moreover, every automorphic space is extensible while the converse fails. We then study the local structure of extensible spaces, showing in particular that an infinite dimensional extensible space cannot contain uniformly complemented copies of ℓ _n ^p , 1 ≤ p < ∞, p ≠ 2. We derive that infinite dimensional spaces such as L _p (μ), p ≠ 2, C(K) spaces not isomorphic to c ₀ for K metric compact, subspaces of c ₀ which are not isomorphic to c ₀, the Gurarij space, Tsirelson spaces or the Argyros-Deliyanni HI space cannot be automorphic. The work of the first author has been supported in part by project MTM2004-02635     

Lipschitz image of a measure-null set can have a null complement

We give two examples which show that in infinite dimensional Banach spaces the measure-null sets are not preserved by Lipschitz homeomorphisms. There exists a closed setD ? ?₂ which contains a translate of any compact set in the unit ball of ?₂ and a Lipschitz isomorphismF of ?₂ onto ?₂ so thatF(D) is contained in a hyperplane. LetX be a Banach space with an unconditional basis. There exists a Borel setA?X and a Lipschitz isomorphismF ofX onto itself so that the setsX/A andF(A) are both Haar null.