Octahedral norms in duals and biduals of Lipschitz-free spaces (Q2182580)

In lots of spaces, all finite convex combinations of slices of the unit ball have diameter 2 (this is called the strong diameter 2 property (SD2P)). In \(C(K)\)-cases, but not when there is an \(L\)-summand in the space, the SD2P is in the main known cases due to a stronger property, the symmetric SD2P (SSD2P). It is a fundamental result that \(X\) has the SD2P exactly when \(X^\ast\) is octahedral and that \(X\) is octahedral exactly when \(X^\ast\) has the SD2P for weak star slices (\(w^\ast\)-SD2P). Further, in [\textit{A. Procházka} and \textit{A. Rueda Zoca}, Ann. Inst. Fourier 68, No.~2, 569--588 (2018; Zbl 1409.46008)], a characterization of when the Lipschitz-free space \(\mathcal{F}(M)\) over a pointed metric space is octahedral has been given. The first main result in the paper under review is that the octahedrality of \(\mathcal{F}(M)\) extends to \(\mathcal{F}(M)^{\ast\ast}\) when \(M\) is unbounded or not uniformly discrete. Note that \(C[0,1]\) is octahedral, but its bidual is not. In fact, what the authors prove is that in these cases the dual \(\mathrm{Lip}_0(M)\) of \(\mathcal{F}(M)\) has the SSD2P. Many other cases when \(\mathrm{Lip}_0(M)\) has the SSD2P are also given. This describes the content of the first half of the paper. In the second half, the authors investigate the following question: Assume that \(\mathrm{Lip}_0(M)\) is octahedral and \(X\) is a non-trivial Banach space; is then \(\mathrm{Lip}_0(M,X)\) octahedral? The main result in this second part is that this is so at least when \(X\) is a dual space. Very interesting is then the final Corollary~3.5, stating that, if \(\mathcal{F}(M)\) has the SD2P, then \(\mathcal{F}(M,X)\) has the SD2P for every \(X\), and if the moment \(\mathcal{F}(M)\) does not have the SD2P, there is already a strongly exposed point in the unit ball of \(\mathcal{F}(M)\).