Weakly compact operators on non-complete normed spaces (Q1013796)

A linear operator \(T\) from a normed space \(X\) to a normed space \(Y\) is called compact (respectively, weakly compact) if \(T(B_X)\) is a relatively compact (respectively, weakly compact) subset of \(Y\), where \(B_X\) denotes the closed unit ball of \(X\). In [Expo. Math. 25, No. 3, 261--263 (2007; Zbl 1125.46017)], \textit{J. Spurný} showed the existence of suitable infinite-dimensional normed spaces \(X\) and \(Y\) such that there exists a bijective compact (thus, weakly compact) operator from \(X\) to \(Y\). The space \(Y\) is, of course, not complete and hence, non-reflexive, whereas the space \(X\) is isometrically isomorphic to \(\ell_2\). In the paper under review, the authors prove that the space \(X\) above can be chosen arbitrarily among the duals of infinite-dimensional separable Banach spaces and, in particular, among the infinite-dimensional reflexive separable spaces. They also show that the space \(X\) can be chosen non-complete, thereby obtaining examples of normed spaces \(X\) and \(Y\) such that there exists a bijective weakly compact operator from \(X\) to \(Y\), and both \(X\) and \(Y\) are non-reflexive. In particular, the author point out that this last situation cannot occur in the case \(X=Y\). Moreover, they establish that, in the above result, bijectivity cannot be relaxed to surjectivity, i.e., they find non-complete (hence, non-reflexive) normed spaces \(X\), of arbitrary density character, such that there are surjective weakly compact operators from \(X\) to \(X\). Finally, the authors show that, if \(X\) is a normed space and if \(T\) is a surjective weakly compact operator from \(X\) to \(X\), then \(X/\ker (T)\) is reflexive.