Extremally distant normed spaces with additional restrictions (Q881000)

Let \(X\) and \(Y\) be \(n\)-dimensional normed spaces. Let \(d(X, Y)\) denote the Banach--Mazur distance between \(X\) and \(Y\) and \(\partial (X, Y)\) the modified Banach--Mazur distance, that is, \(\partial(X,Y)=\inf\| T:X\to Y\| \, \| S:Y\to X\| \), where the infimum is taken over all linear operators \(T,S\) with \(|\det T\,|=|\det S\,| =1\). In other words, \(\partial(X,Y)=\text{vr}(B_X,B_Y)\text{vr}(B_Y, B_X)\), where \(B_X, B_Y\) are the unit balls of \(X\) and \(Y\), and \(\text{vr}(K,L)=\left(\inf\left\{\frac{\text{vol}(K)}{\text{vol}(TL)}\mid TL\subset K\right\}\right)^{1/n}\) is the volume ratio of \(K\) and \(L\). One trivially has that \(\partial(X,Y)\leq d(X,Y)\leq n\partial(X,Y)\) and, from John's theorem, \(d(X,Y)\leq n\). \textit{E.\,D.\thinspace Gluskin} proved in [Funct.\ Anal.\ Appl.\ 15, 57--58 (1981; Zbl 0469.46017)] that there exists an absolute positive constant \(c\) such that, for every \(n\), there are \(n\)-dimensional normed spaces \(X\) and \(Y\) satisfying \(d(X,Y)\geq cn\). In the present paper, the author shows that one cannot essentially improve the estimate \(d(X,Y)\leq n\partial(X,Y)\). Namely, he proves that, for every \(n\), there are two \(n\)-dimensional normed spaces \(X\) and \(Y\) such that \(cn^{1-\varepsilon_n}\partial(X,Y) \leq d(X,Y)\), where \(c\) is an absolute positive constant and \(\varepsilon_n\) tends to zero as \(n\) grows to infinity. This improves the earlier result by \textit{A.\,I.\thinspace Khrabrov} in [Vestn.\ St.\ Petersbg.\ Univ., Math.\ 33, No.\,3, 45--50 (2000; Zbl 1043.46503)], who proved the estimate with \(\sqrt{n/\ln n}\). The proof is based on the construction by \textit{M.\,Rudelson} in [Isr.\ J.\ Math.\ 89, No.\,1--3, 189--204 (1995; Zbl 0823.46010)] and mixing properties of operators [see e.\,g., \textit{P.\,Mankiewicz}, Isr.\ J.\ Math.\ 109, 75--91 (1999; Zbl 0928.47025) and \textit{S.\,J.\thinspace Szarek}, Trans.\ Am.\ Math.\ Soc.\ 293, 339--353 (1986; Zbl 0592.46016)]. In particular, Szarek's theorem on invariant norms is sharpened.