An estimate on the norm of the product of infinite block operator matrices (Q1801785)

A lower bound is found for the operator norm of the product of two infinite block operator matrices on Hilbert space which depends only on the norms of submatrices of these operators. The methodology of the paper is to study sequence-valued functions on certain families of finite sets (the barriers of Nash-Williams) and to show that the convex hulls of the ranges of any pair of such functions must contain points which are close. This is achieved by a study in infinite Ramsey theory.