A characterization of the Euclidean space (Q1863539)

Let \(X=({\mathbb R}^{n},\|\cdot\|)\) be a normed vector space such that all vectors of the canonical basis have norm \(1\), and let \(\langle\cdot,\cdot\rangle\) be the usual Euclidean dot product on \({\mathbb R}^{n}\) . The main result of this paper says that the following assertions are equivalent: (a) \(\|\cdot\|\) is the Euclidean norm, i.e. \(\|x\|^2 = \langle x,x\rangle\) for all \(x\in X\). (b) For every projection \(P:X\to X\) there holds \(\|(I-P-P^T)^{-1}\|\leq 1\), where \(I\) is the identity on \(X\) and \(P^T\) is the (Euclidean) adjoint of the linear operator \(P\) or, by identifying each linear operator with its canonical matrix, \(P^T\) is the transpose of the matrix \(P\). The proof is based, in part, on a result by \textit{S. Kakutani} [Jap. J. Math. 16, 93-97 (1939; Zbl 0022.15001)].