On the sublinear operators factoring through \(L_{q}\) (Q1777734)

Let \(0<p \leq q \leq \infty\) and \(X\) be a Banach space. Maurey's factorization theorem states that every linear \(q\)-convex operator \(u: X \rightarrow L_p(\mu)\) admits a factorization \(u=M_{g_u}\widetilde{u}\), where \(\widetilde{u}\) is linear and bounded and \(M_{g_u}: L_q(\mu) \rightarrow L_p(\mu)\) is the multiplication operator induced by some positive function \(g_u \in L_r(\mu)\), \(1/r=1/p-1/q\). The authors investigate in which way a similar factorization result for a sublinear operator is related to the factorization behaviour of its linear minorants. They prove the following: Let \(T: X \rightarrow L_p(\mu)\) be sublinear. Suppose that there exists \(C>0\) such that all linear operators \(u: X \rightarrow L_p(\mu)\) with \(u \leq T\) are \(q\)-convex with \(q\)-convexity constant not exceeding \(C\), i.e., every \(u\) factorizes as above with \(\| \widetilde{u}\| \leq C\), and there exists positive \(g_0 \in L_r(\mu)\) with \(g_u \leq g_0\) for all \(u\) as above. Then \(T\) admits a factorization \(T=M_{g_T} \, \widetilde{T}\), where \(\widetilde{T}\) is sublinear and bounded and \(M_{g_T}: L_q(\mu) \rightarrow L_p(\mu)\) a multiplication operator as in the above. The authors also provide an example (communicated by G.~Godefroy) to show that the existence of \(g_0\) is not superfluous. This leaves an interesting gap with regard to the fact that for a sublinear operator admitting a factorization as above, the \(q\)-convexity constants of all its linear minorants are uniformly bounded, which is also shown in this article.