On strictly singular nonlinear centralizers

We show that _c0$c_0$ is the only Banach space with unconditional basis that satisfies the equation Ext(X,X)=0$Ext(X,X)=0$. This partially improves an old result by Kalton and Peck. We prove that the Kalton–Peck maps are strictly singular on a number of sequence spaces, including _?p${?}_p$ for 00<p<∞, Tsirelson and Schlumprecht spaces and their duals, as well as certain super-reflexive variations of these spaces. In the last section, we give estimates of the projection constants of certain finite-dimensional twisted sums of Kalton–Peck type.