Subspaces and quotients of Banach spaces with shrinking unconditional bases (Q1758939)

The authors provide an intrinsic characterization of when a separable Banach space is isomorphic to a subspace as well as a quotient of a Banach space with a shrinking unconditional basis. Recall that a Schauder basis \((x_n)\) for a Banach space \(X\) is shrinking if the associated biorthogonal functionals \((x_n^*)\) form a basis for \(X^*\), the dual space of \(X\). The authors' characterization uses the weak\(^*\)-unconditional tree property (\(w^*\)-UTP), defined as follows: A Banach space \(X\) has the \(w^*\)-UTP if every normalized weak\(^*\) null infinitely branching tree in \(X^*\) admits an unconditional branch. A normalized tree in \(Y\) is a subset \((x_A)\) of the unit sphere of \(Y\), where \(A\) is indexed over all finite subsets of the natural numbers. A normalized weak\(^*\) null (resp., weakly null) tree is a normalized tree in \(Y\) with the additional property that \((x_{A\cup\{n\}})_{n>\max A}\) forms a weak\(^*\) null (resp., weakly null) sequence for every \(A\) finite subset of \(\mathbb N\). A space \(X\) has the UTP if every normalized weakly null infinitely branching tree in \(X\) admits an unconditional branch. In the paper under review, the authors obtain the following characterization: A separable Banach space \(X\) is isomorphic to a subspace as well as a quotient of a Banach space with a shrinking unconditional basis if and only if \(X\) has the \(w^*\)-UTP. We note that several embedding theorems, involving weakly null trees, have appeared in the literature. Some early examples are due to \textit{N. J. Kalton} [Q. J. Math. 52, No. 3, 313--328 (2001; Zbl 1016.46012)] and \textit{E. Odell} and \textit{Th. Schlumprecht} [Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 354, No. 10, 4085--4108 (2002; Zbl 1023.46014)]. A few years ago in [Duke Math. J. 141, No. 3, 505--518 (2008; Zbl 1146.46003)], the authors of the article under review proved the reflexive version of the current result: A reflexive space \(X\) is isomorphic to a subspace as well as a quotient of a reflexive Banach space with an unconditional basis if and only if \(X\) has the UTP. We note that a reflexive space has the \(w^*\)-UTP if and only if it has the UTP. Combining this observation with some known results, the present paper captures, with simplier proofs, all of the results in the reflexive case. The proof of the main theorem considers M-bases rather than, as in previous papers, finite dimensional decompositions (FDDs). This and the observation that the technique of ``killing the overlap'' works for M-bases, enables this simplification. Finally, as noted in the abstract, the authors' proof yields the following: A uniformly convex space with the UTP is isomorphic to a subspace as well as a quotient of a uniformly convex space with an unconditional FDD. It is noted that this result cannot be strengthened to embedding such a space into a uniformly convex space with a basis, as there exists a uniformly convex space with an unconditional FDD that does not embed into a uniformly convex space with an unconditional basis.