Saturating constructions for normed spaces. II (Q1779208)

The paper continues the study of saturation phenomena discovered by the authors in [Geom. Funct. Anal. 14, No.~6, 1352--1375 (2005; Zbl 1090.46007), see the preceding review]. The authors develop methods of that paper proving new and extending old results. They prove several theorems of the following type. Template. There exists an absolute constant \(\alpha >1\) such that, given a finite-dimensional normed space \(Y\) with some property, there exists a finite-dimensional space \(X\) with \(\dim X \leq (\dim Y)^{\alpha}\), satisfying the same property and such that every subspace of \(X\) of sufficiently large dimension has a subspace which is well-complemented and is close to \(Y\). The main properties under consideration here are cotype and \(K\)-convexity (\(K\)-convexity is equivalent to having rather large subspaces well-isomorphic to \(\ell_1^n\)-spaces). In particular, the authors prove that for every \(n\geq 1\) and every \(q>2\), there exists a space \(X\), \(\dim X=2n\), of cotype \(q\) such that every \(n\)-dimensional subspace of \(X\) is poorly \(K\)-convex. It closes the gap left in Part 1 [loc.~cit.] where a similar result was shown for \(q>4\). Note that if \(X\) has cotype \(2\) then it has \(n\)-dimensional subspaces which are nearly Euclidean and thus are \(K\)-convex. The proofs use probabilistic arguments. The most basic idea of applying probabilistic constructions of normed spaces goes back to \textit{E.~D.\ Gluskin} [Funct. Anal. Appl. 15, 57--58 (1981); translation from Funkts. Anal. Prilozh. 15, No.~1, 72--73 (1981; Zbl 0469.46017)]. After Gluskin's work, such constructions have been used in many proofs, see, e.g., the survey by \textit{P.~Mankiewicz} and \textit{N.~Tomczak--Jaegermann} in [W.~B.\ Johnson, J.\ Lindenstrauss (eds.), ``Handbook of the geometry of Banach spaces. Volume 2'' (North--Holland, Amsterdam), 1201--1246 (2003; Zbl 1057.46010)]. The authors of the present paper develop probabilistic techniques and introduce new ingredients, such as a decoupling-type lemma which allows decoupling of otherwise dependent events and which is of independent interest. A ``global'' version of ``local'' statements, i.e., a version in terms of the entire space and not in terms of its subspaces or quotients, is also discussed.