The convex hull of a Banach-Saks set (Q2452484)

A subset \(A\) of a Banach space \(X\) has the Banach-Saks property if every sequence \((x_n)\) in \(A\) has a subsequence \((y_n)\) such that the sequence \(1/n \sum_{i=1}^n y_i\) is norm convergent in \(X\). The main problem considered in this paper is the following: If \(A\) has the B-S property, does this imply that \(co(A)=\), the convex hull of \(A\), has the B-S property? The authors show that in general the answer is no. They present an example consisting of the weakly-null unit basis \((u_n)\) of a Schreier-like space \(X_{\mathcal F}\) for a certain family \(\mathcal F\) of finite subsets of \(\mathbb N\). This sequence is a B-S set in \(X_{\mathcal F}\) but its convex hull is not. Using interpolation, the authors also construct a reflexive space \(Y\) and a weakly null sequence which is a B-S set in \(Y\) but its convex hull is not. The paper consists of four sections. In Sections 1 and 2, plenty of information is given on the history of the problem and earlier results on the B-S property are presented and complemented. It is made clear that, for the construction of any counterexample to the main problem, a study of families of finite subsets of \(\mathbb N\) is necessary. Any counterexample should correspond to a subset of a Schreier-like space \(X_{\mathcal F}\) for a certain family \(\mathcal F\) of finite subsets of \(\mathbb N\). In Section 3, sufficient conditions are given for the stability of the B-S property under taking convex hulls. We mention a few: Proposition 3.1. If \(X\) has the weak B-S property, then the convex hull of a B-S subset of \(X\) is B-S. Proposition 3.2. Let \((x_n)\) be a sequence in \(X\) such that every subsequence is Cesàro convergent. Then \(co(\{x_n, n=1,2,\dots\})\) is B-S. Proposition 3.3. If a B-S set \(A\) is contained in the range of a vector measure, then \(co(A)\) is B-S. The authors consider a generalized Schreier space \(X_\alpha\) based on the Schreier families \(\mathcal S_\alpha\) for any countable ordinal \(\alpha\) and they show that a subset \(A\) of \(X_\alpha\) has the B-S property iff \(co(A)\) is B-S. Section 4 contains, among many interesting results, the construction of a B-S set \(A\) such that \(co(A)\) is not B-S. This is done using difficult combinatorial techniques related to families of finite subsets of \(\mathbb N\).