Stereotype spaces and algebras (Q2164840)

In this almost 800-pages book the author lays out a comprehensive theory of stereotype spaces and algebras. The latter are a class of topological vector spaces which are reflexive in the sense that the canonical map \(i_X\colon X\rightarrow X^{\star\star}\) into the bidual is an isomorphisms of topological vector spaces, where -- in contrast to the classical meaning of reflexivity -- for a topological vector space \(X\), the continuous dual space \(X^{\star}\) is endowed with the topology of uniform convergence on totally bounded sets. The above definition turns out to be on the one hand rather mild, so that for instance all Fréchet spaces, and thus in particular all Banach spaces, turn out to be stereotype. Indeed, every quasicomplete barrelled locally convex space is stereotype. On the other hand, the category of stereotype spaces, with linear and continuous maps as morphisms, has very good abstract properties. For example, the latter category is pre-abelian, complete and cocomplete, and it is self-dual under the functor \(X\mapsto X^{\star}\). The book starts with a 50 pages overview including the history of stereotypical spaces. Indeed, the latter goes back to the only paper by Marianne Freundlich Smith (name giver to Smith spaces) published in 1952 [\textit{M.~Smith}, Ann. Math. (2) 56, 248--253 (1952; Zbl 0047.10701)]. Smith's approach remained then unnoticed for many years and only since the mid 1990s her observation, namely that endowing \(X^{\star}\) with the topology of uniform convergence on compacts leads to an interesting and wide class of in-this-sense reflexive spaces, was followed up on in a rigorous fashion. After this introduction, the author continues with an introduction to category theory including the theories of enrichments. It follows a chapter on locally convex spaces and then the core of the book, one chapter on stereotype spaces and one on stereotype algebras. The book is nicely written, very detailed and contains, amongst a thorough theoretical treatment, also lots of classical examples which are discussed from the stereotypical point of view.