Almost isometries on the unit ball of \(\ell _ 1\) (Q1117424)

Let X and Y be Banach-spaces. The paper deals with the following problem: Given an almost isometry F from the unit ball \(B_ 1(X)\) of X into the unit ball of Y, does there exist an isometry near to F? A negative answer is given in case of \(X=Y=\ell_ 1\). More precisely, the following problem is considered in the paper: Given R, \(0<R<1\), is there a function \(\epsilon\to \delta (\epsilon)\) such that \(\delta(\epsilon)\to 0\) \((\epsilon\to 0)\) and such that for each \(\epsilon\)-almost isometry \(F: B_ 1(X)\to Y\) there exists an isometry \(G: B_ R(X)\to Y\) with \(\| F(x)-G(x)\| \leq \delta (\epsilon)\) on \(B_ R(X)?\) Theorem 1 says that the answer is negative in case of \(X=Y=\ell_ 1\) and \(0<R<1\). In Theorem 2 the author gives a negative answer in case of \(X=Y=(L_ 1(0,1)\times {\mathbb{R}})_ 1\). As pointed out in the paper, a positive answer has been obtained for C(K)-spaces by \textit{Y. Benjamini} [Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 83, 479-485 (1981; Zbl 0474.46012)], for \(L_ p\)- spaces by \textit{D. E. Alspach} [Ill. J. Math. 27, 300-314 (1983; Zbl 0505.46009)] and for nonlinear maps and C(K)-spaces (K compact metric) by \textit{G.-M. Lövblom} [Isr. J. Math. 56, 143-159 (1986; Zbl 0637.46027)]. The question is still open for \(B_ 1(\ell_ p)\), \(p>1\) and for \(B_ 1(L_ p)\), \(p\geq 1\).