Traces on operator ideals defined over the class of all Banach spaces and related open problems (Q6113051): Difference between revisions

The author is one of the main contributors to the classical theory of traces of operators on Banach spaces, and his monograph [\textit{A. Pietsch}, Eigenvalues and $s$-numbers. Cambridge University Press (1987; Zbl 0615.47019)] has become the main classical reference on the topic. This survey article addresses the extension to singular traces, giving a complete picture of the current situation of the research on this area, and a perspective of possible future developments. The \(k\)-th ordering number of a bounded sequence \(a = (a_{h})\) is defined as \(o_{k}(a) = \sup_{h \geq k} \vert a_{h} \vert\). A~quasi-Banach shift-monotone sequence ideal is a linear subspace \(\mathfrak{z}\) of \(\ell_{\infty}\), endowed with a quari-norm \(\Vert \cdot \vert_{\mathfrak{z}} \Vert\) that is invariant under the forward shift \(S_{+}\) and satisfying that, if \(a \in \ell_{\infty}\), \(b \in \mathfrak{z}\) and \(o_{k}(a) \leq o_{k}(b)\), then \(a \in \mathfrak{z}\) (it is \(o_{k}-solid\)) and \(\Vert a \vert_{\mathfrak{z}}\Vert \leq \Vert b \vert_{\mathfrak{z}}\Vert\). It is assumed that \(\Vert e_{0} \vert_{\mathfrak{z}}\Vert =1\). For an operator \(S\) between Banach spaces, \(a_{k}(S)\) denotes the \(k\)-th approximation number. A~quasi-Banach shift-monotone sequence ideal \(\mathfrak{z}\) defines an operator ideal, denoted \(\mathfrak{L}^{\mathrm{APP}}_{\mathfrak{z}}\), consisting of those operators \(S\) for which \(\big(a_{k}(S) \big) \in \mathfrak{z}\). The first section of the paper studies the structure of these ideals. A~\(\mathfrak{z}\)-representation of an operator \(S\) is of the form \(S=\sum_{h=0}^{\infty} S_{h}\), where each \(S_{h}\) has rank \(\leq 2^{h}\) and \(\big( S - \sum_{h=0}^{k-1} S_{h} \big) \in \mathfrak{z}\). Then the ideal \(\mathfrak{L}^{\mathrm{APP}}_{\mathfrak{z}}\) just consists of operators that are \(\mathfrak{z}\)-representable. Moreover, the quais-norm induced by \(\mathfrak{z}\) is equivalent to the norm given by \(\inf \Big\Vert \big( S - \sum_{h=0}^{k-1} S_{h} \big) \big\vert_{\mathfrak{z}} \big\Vert\). Conversely, each quasi-Banach operator ideal \(\mathfrak{A}(\ell_{2})\) defines a quasi-Banach shift-monotone sequence ideal by \(\mathfrak{A}_{\mathfrak{z}} = \{ a \in \ell_{\infty} : D_{a} \in \mathfrak{A}(\ell_{2}) \}\) (where \(D_{a}\) stands for the diagonal operator defined by \(a\)). In this way there is a one-to-one correspondence between operator ideals and shift-monotone sequence ideals. This correspondence is carefully analysed. It is shown that an operator ideal coincides with some \(\mathfrak{L}^{\mathrm{APP}}_{\mathfrak{z}}\) if and only if it is \((a_{2^{k}})\)-solid. Also, every \((a_{2^{k}})\)-solid operator ideal is uniquely determined by its Hilbert space component \(\mathfrak{A}(\ell_{2})\). Considering \(\mathfrak{A}\)-approximation numbers, \(a_{n}(S \vert \mathfrak{A})\) and a quasi-Banach shift-monotone sequence ideal \(\mathfrak{z}\), a new operator ideal (denoted \(\mathfrak{A}^{\mathrm{APP}}_{\mathfrak{z}}\)) is defined by considering those \(S \in \mathfrak{A}\) for which \(\big( a_{2^n}(S \vert \mathfrak{A}) \big) \in \mathfrak{z}\). Traces defined on such ideals are studied. For every \(\frac{1}{2}S_{+}\)-invariant linear form \(\varphi\) on \(\mathfrak{z}\) the value \(\varphi_{\mathfrak{z}}(S) = \varphi \big(\frac{1}{2^{k}} \mathrm{trace} (S_{k}) \big)\) does not depend on the choice of the \(\mathfrak{z}\)-representation \(\sum_{h=0}^{\infty} S_{h}\), and defines a trace \(\varphi_{s}\) on \(\mathfrak{L}^{\mathrm{APP}}_{\mathfrak{z}}\). Moreover, \(\varphi_{s}\) is bounded whenever \(\varphi\) is so. The notion of exact trace type \(1/r\) operator ideal is introduced, and the previous result is extended to \(\frac{1}{2^{1/r}}S_{+}\)-invariant linear forms on exact trace \(1/r\) operator ideals and \(\mathfrak{z}\) the ideal of sequences so that \(\vert a_{h} \vert = O \big( \frac{1}{2^{h/r}} \big)\). The fist section of the paper is concluded by showing that \(\mathfrak{A}^{\mathrm{APP}}_{\mathfrak{z}}\) is a quasi-Banach operator ideal whenever \(\mathfrak{A}\) and \(\mathfrak{z}\) are quasi-Banach ideals. The second section is dedicated to suggest possible further developments on the area, by collecting up to 27 open problems. These are grouped in different topics: spectrum of shift operators, traces and traceless operator ideals, spectral traces, the ideal of \((r,2)\)-summing operators, operator ideals generated by Weyl or entropy numbers, Banach spaces with few operators, strange traces or extending traces.