On universal Banach spaces of density continuum (Q1760393)

The classical Parovichenko theorem on the universality of the Boolean algebra \(\mathcal P(\omega)/\mathrm{Fin}\) implies that under CH the Banach space \(\ell_\infty/c_0\) contains an isometric copy of each Banach space of density continuum (which means that it is an isometrically universal Banach space of density continuum). On the other hand, by a result of \textit{S. Shelah} and \textit{A. Usvyatsov} [Isr. J. Math. 152, 245--270 (2006; Zbl 1145.46013)], it is consistent that there is no isometrically universal Banach space of density continuum. The paper under review contains two main results. Theorem 1.3 says that it is consistent that there is no universal Banach space of density continuum (i.e., a Banach space of density continuum which contains an isomorphic copy of every Banach space of density continuum), which implies the mentioned result of Shelah and Usvyatsov. The other main result is Theorem 1.4 saying that adding \(\omega_2\) Cohen reals to a model of CH produces a model of ZFC in which there exists a universal Banach space of density continuum, but \(\ell_\infty/c_0\) is not such a space (because it does not contain an isomorphic copy of the Banach space \(C[0,\mathfrak c]\)).