\(L\)-orthogonality, octahedrality and Daugavet property in Banach spaces (Q2020421)

Let \(X\) be a Banach space with unit ball \(B_X\) and unit sphere \(S_X\). Two elements \(x\) and \(y\) in \(X\) are said to be $L$-orthogonal if \(\|x + y\| = \|x\| + \|y\|.\) If an element \(x\) in \(X\) is $L$-orthogonal to every element in a subspace \(Y \) of \(X,\) then \(x\) is said to be $L$-orthogonal to \(Y.\) A Banach space \(X\) is said to contain almost $L$-orthogonal elements if, for every finite subset \((x_i)_{i=1}^n\) of \(S_X\) and every \(\varepsilon > 0\), there exists \(x \in B_X\) with \(\|x_i + x\| > 2 - \varepsilon\) for every \(i = 1, \ldots, n\). If in addition such an element \(x\) can be found inside any given non-empty relatively \(\sigma(X,Y)\)-open subset of \(B_X\), where \(Y\) is a norming subspace of \(X^*\), then \(X\) is said to contain an abundance of almost $L$-orthogonal elements with respect to \(Y\). A straightforward application of the Principle of Local Reflexivity gives that a Banach space contains almost $L$-orthogonal elements whenever its bidual contains a non-zero element which is $L$-orthogonal to \(X\). In the separable case also the converse holds. This is far from obvious and was proved in [\textit{G.~Godefroy} and \textit{N.~J. Kalton}, Contemp. Math. 85, 195--237 (1989; Zbl 0676.46003)]. One of the main achievements of the paper under review is Theorem~3.2, which shows that the result of Godefroy and Kalton does not extend to the non-separable case. Theorem~3.2 says that if \(X\) is a Banach space containing almost $L$-orthogonal elements, \(I\) is a set whose cardinality is strictly bigger than the density character of \(X^{**}\), and \(2 < p < \infty\), then the Banach space \(\ell_p(I) \widehat{\otimes}_\varepsilon X\) contains almost $L$-orthogonal elements, but its bidual contains no non-zero element which is $L$-orthogonal to \(\ell_p(I) \widehat{\otimes}_\varepsilon X\). In the other direction it is shown, in Theorem~3.5, that if \(X\) contains an abundance of almost $L$-orthogonal elements with respect to some norming subspace \(Y \subset X^*\) (equivalently, \(X\) has the almost Daugavet property with respect to \(Y\)) and the density character of \(X\) is \(\omega_1\), then \(X^{**}\) does contain non-zero elements which are $L$-orthogonal to \(X\). As a consequence of this, the authors obtain, in Theorem~3.6, the following nice characterization: A Banach space \(X\) with density character \(\omega_1\) contains an abundance of almost $L$-orthogonal elements with respect to \(X^*\) (equivalently, \(X\) has the Daugavet property) if and only if the set of elements in \(B_{X^{**}}\) which are $L$-orthogonal to \(X\) is weak\(^*\) dense in \(B_{X^{**}}\). It is also shown that under the continuum hypothesis this result fails for Banach spaces with larger density characters. Also, some results about the Daugavet property in the setting of $L$-embedded spaces are established. Many of the proofs in the paper make use of the ball topology and the existence of almost isometric ideals with nice properties.