Free complex Banach lattices

The construction of the free Banach lattice generated by a real Banach space is extended to the complex setting. It is shown that for every complex Banach space E there is a complex Banach lattice ${\text{FBL}}_{\mathbb{C}}[E]$ containing a linear isometric copy of E and satisfying the following universal property: for every complex Banach lattice $X_{\mathbb{C}}$, every operator $T:E\to X_{\mathbb{C}}$ admits a unique lattice homomorphic extension $\stackrel{?}{T}:{\text{FBL}}_{\mathbb{C}}[E]\to X_{\mathbb{C}}$ with $6\stackrel{?}{T}6=6T6$. The free complex Banach lattice ${\text{FBL}}_{\mathbb{C}}[E]$ is shown to have analogous properties to those of its real counterpart. However, examples of non-isomorphic complex Banach spaces E and F can be given so that ${\text{FBL}}_{\mathbb{C}}[E]$ and ${\text{FBL}}_{\mathbb{C}}[F]$ are lattice isometric. The spectral theory of induced lattice homomorphisms on ${\text{FBL}}_{\mathbb{C}}[E]$ is also explored.