A characterisation of the Daugavet property in spaces of Lipschitz functions (Q1748320)

A Banach space \(X\) has the Daugavet property whenever \(\|\text{Id} + T\|=1 + \|T\|\) for every rank-\(1\) operator \(T:X\longrightarrow X\). In [\textit{Y. Ivakhno} et al., Math. Scand. 101, No. 2, 261--279 (2007; Zbl 1177.46010)], the authors attacked the problem of characterizing those metric spaces \(M\) for which the corresponding space \(\text{Lip}_0(M)\) of Lipschitz functions possesses the Daugavet property. They obtained a satisfactorily good answer for the case when \(M\) is compact, but for general metric spaces a number of questions were left open. In the paper under review, the authors address the case of non-compact complete metric spaces \(M\). They demonstrate that \(\text{Lip}_0(M)\) has the Daugavet property if and only if \(M\) is a length metric space, i.e., if and only if, for every pair of points \(x, y \in M\), the distance \(d(x, y)\) is equal to the infimum of the lengths of rectifiable curves joining them. This condition also characterises the Daugavet property in the Lipschitz free space \(\mathcal{F}(M)\). Along the way it is demonstrated that some properties of complete metric spaces considered by Ivakhno, Kadets and Werner [loc. cit.] -- locality and spreading locality -- are in fact equivalent to the property of being a length space. A question if another property from the same source -- property (Z) -- is equivalent to the previous ones remains open, but it is demonstrated that \(M\) enjoys (Z) if and only if the unit ball of \(\mathcal{F}(M)\) admits no strongly exposed points.