On the Borelness of the intersection operation (Q375692)

The Effros-Borel structure equips the set of closed subsets of a Polish space \(X\) with a standard Borel structure, that is, with the Borel structure of a Polish space. It is therefore natural to investigate the complexity of natural set-theoretic operations such as intersection, and \textit{J. P. R. Christensen} [Math. Ann. 195, 17--23 (1971; Zbl 0215.48303)] showedthat this operation is Borel exactly when \(X\) is \(\sigma\)-compact. The present article is devoted to the restriction of the intersection operation to special collections of closed sets: namely, linear subspaces or subgroups of separable Banach spaces. These collections are, of course, equipped with the structure induced by the Effros-Borel structure, which turns out to be standard as well. The authors show that, when a Banach space \(X\) is quasi-reflexive, the intersection operation on its closed subspaces is Borel, but, on the other hand, that it is not so if \(X\) contains a subspace which has a Schauder decomposition into infinitely many non-reflexive Banach spaces. It follows, for instance, that a subspace of an order-continuous Banach lattice is reflexive if and only if this intersection operation is Borel. The case of closed subgroups leads to interesting open problems: it is shown that a necessary condition for the Borelness of the intersection operation of closed subgroups of a separable Banach space \(X\) is that \(X\) is hereditarily indecomposable. We mention that the Effros-Borel structure of the collection of separable Banach spaces (seen as the closed subspaces of a universal space) has been used, in particular, in [\textit{B. Bossard}, Fundam. Math. 172, No. 2, 117--152 (2002; Zbl 1029.46009)]. Also, the result asserting that the linear continuous image of a separable Banach space can be Borel of arbitrarily high rank has been shown in [\textit{J. Saint-Raymond}, Ann. Inst. Fourier 26, No. 3, 211--256 (1976; Zbl 0324.46003)].