A multiset version of James's theorem (Q2165544)

The famous James theorem states that a weakly closed set \(A\) in a Banach space \(X\) is weakly compact iff every \(x^*\in X^*\) attains its supremum on \(A\). The main result of this paper is that given a weakly sequentially compact Banach space \(X\) and finitely many closed, convex and bounded sets \(A_1,\ldots,A_n\) which are not weakly compact, there exists \(x^*\in X^*\) which does not attain its supremum on any \(A_i\), \(i=1,\ldots,n\). As a consequence one obtains that if a bounded set \(A\) in a weakly sequentially complete Banach space \(X\) is not relatively weakly compact, there exists \(x^*\in X^*\) which does not attain its supremum and also not its infimum on \(A\). The proof is based on a generalization of some ideas used in the proof of James's theorem from [\textit{J. D. Pryce}, Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 17, 148--155 (1966; Zbl 0141.11702)].