Banach spaces with no proximinal subspaces of codimension 2 (Q1709746)

A subspace \(Y\) of a Banach space \(X\) is said to be proximinal if, for every \(x \in X\), there is \(y \in Y\) such that \(\|x - y\| = \text{dist}(x,Y)\). Every infinite-dimensional Banach space contains one-codimensional proximinal subspaces (in fact, a lot of them). Many years ago, \textit{I. Singer} [The theory of best approximation and functional analysis. Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM), Philadelphia, PA (1974; Zbl 0291.41020), Problem 2.1] asked whether every infinite-dimensional Banach space contains proximinal subspaces of codimension~\(2\). The paper under review makes a breakthrough in the field by answering this question in the negative. The corresponding space \(\mathcal R\) is \(c_0\) equipped with a special ingeniously constructed equivalent norm. The preprint arXiv:1307.7958 of this paper was published in 2013, and since then it has been influencing the related research. In particular, \textit{M. Rmoutil} [J. Funct. Anal. 272, No. 3, 918--928 (2017; Zbl 1359.46008)] demonstrated that the same space \(\mathcal R\) (called now Read's space) gives a negative solution to the problem by \textit{G. Godefroy} [Extr. Math. 16, No. 1, 1--25 (2001; Zbl 0986.46009), Problem III] about existence in the dual of every infinite-dimensional Banach space of a two-dimensional linear subspace consisting of norm-attaining functionals. A footnote on the first page of the paper remarks: ``Sadly, Charles Read died in August 2015. The revisions to this paper have been made by his colleague, Jonathan Partington, following the suggestions of the referee.''