On the numerical index of Banach spaces (Q2484481)

The numerical radius of a bounded linear operator \(T\) on a real or complex Banach space \(X\) is, by definition, the quantity \[ v(T)= \sup\{|x^*(Tx)|: x\in X,\,\| x\|= 1,\,x^*\in X^*,\,\| x^*\|= 1,\,x^*(x)= 1\}. \] The numerical index of \(X\) is \(n(X)= \text{inf}\{v(T): T\in B(X),\,\| T\|= 1\}\). It is known that \(\{n(X): X\text{ is a real Banach space}\}=[0,1]\) and \(\{n(X):X\text{ is a complex Banach space}\}=[1/e, 1]\). In this paper, the author proves three more results on \(n(X)\) for \(X\) the \(\ell_p\) and \(L_p\) spaces: (1) \(n(\ell_p)= \lim_{n\to\infty}(\ell^n_p)\) for \(1< p<\infty\), (2) \(M_p/2\leq n(\ell^2_p)\leq M_p\), where \(M_p= \sup_{t\in [0,1]}(t^{p-1}- t)/(1+ t^p)\), for \(1\leq p\leq 2\) and the real space \(\ell^2_p\), and (3) \(n(L_p(\mu))\geq n(\ell_p)\) for \(1\leq p<\infty\) and any positive measure \(\mu\).