Local isometries of function spaces (Q1566357)

Let \(X\) be a Banach space. An operator \(T\in L(X)\) is called a locally surjective isometry if for every point \(x\in X\) it coincides with a surjective isometry \(T_x\), that is, for every \(x\in X\) there exists \(T_x\) such that \(T(x)=T_x(x)\). A general problem is the following: Suppose we know all surjective isometries on \(X\). Can we then describe the locally surjective isometries? The authors go into this problem, starting from the fact that the surjective isometries for most of the classical function spaces are known. It turns out that for a rather wide class of function spaces the locally surjective isometries are already surjective isometries: The first class of function spaces the authors show to have this property (called algebraic reflexivity) are finite-co-dimensional closed subspaces of complex \(C(X)\)-spaces, where \(X\) is a first countable compact Hausdorff space. Earlier, \textit{L. Molnár} and \textit{B. Zalar} [Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 128, 93-99 (2000; Zbl 0930.43002)] had shown this result for \(C(X)\) itself (\(X\) is still first countable compact Hausdorff and will be throughout this review.) The authors then turn to another generalization of the result of Molnàr and Zalar: What about \(C(X,E)\), when \(E\) is a complex Banach space? The discussion is divided into two parts, namely, \(E\) is finite-dimensional and \(E\) is infinite-dimensional. The following is obtained in the finite-dimensional case: The \(\ell_\infty\)-sum \(\bigoplus_{j=1}^{n}\) \(C(X_j,E_j)\) is algebraically reflexive. Another result is that \(\bigoplus_{j\in J} E\) is algebraically reflexive iff \(J\) is of non-measurable cardinality. In the infinite-dimensional situation, the main result is perhaps that if \(E\) is uniformly convex and algebraically reflexive, then \(C(X,E)\) inherits the algebraic reflexivity from \(E\).