Fixed point properties and reflexivity in variable Lebesgue spaces (Q2219460)

A Banach space \(X\) has the \textit{fixed point property} if, for every nonempty, closed, bounded, convex subset \(C\) of \(X\), every nonexpansive mapping of \(C\) into itself has a fixed point. If a similar statement holds when \(C\) is restricted to the class of weakly compact convex subsets of \(X\), \(X\) is said to have the \textit{weak fixed point property}. Determining which Banach spaces have the fixed point property or the weak fixed point property has been intensively studied for over \(50\) years. In the article under review, the authors investigate fixed point properties in variable Lebesgue spaces \(L^{p(\cdot)}(\mu)\), where \((\Omega, \Sigma, \mu)\) is a complete \(\sigma\)-finite measure space and \(p:\Omega\to [1,\infty]\) is a measurable function. The variable Lebesgue space \(L^{p(\cdot)}(\mu)\) is defined as the modular space endowed with the Luxemburg norm associated to the convex modular \[ \rho(g) = \int_{[p<\infty]} |g(t)|^{p(t)} d\mu + {\underset{p^{-1}(\{+\infty\})}{\text{ess}\,\sup}} |g(t)| \] on the vector space of measurable functions \(g:\Omega\to \mathbb{R}\). The authors' first fixed point result is that a variable Lebesgue space \(L^{p(\cdot)}(\mu)\) has the weak fixed point property if and only if it has weak normal structure; or if and only if it contains no isometric copy of \(L^1[0,1]\); or if and only if a condition in terms of the values of the exponent function \(p\) holds. One consequence of this and a theorem earlier in the article characterizing the reflexive variable Lebesgue spaces is that \(L^{1+x}[0,1]\) is a nonreflexive variable Lebesgue space with the weak fixed point property. This is in sharp contrast to the known result that a classical Lebesgue space has the weak fixed point property if and only if it is reflexive. It is known that closed subspaces of \(L^1[0,1]\) have the fixed point property if and only if they are reflexive [\textit{B. Maurey}, Sémin. Anal. Fonct. 1980--1981, Exposé No.~8, 18~p. (1981; Zbl 0476.46023); \textit{P. N. Dowling} and \textit{C. J. Lennard}, Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 125, No.~2, 443--446 (1997; Zbl 0861.47032)]. In the setting of variable Lebesgue spaces, more care is needed. The authors prove that, if \(\operatorname{ess\,sup} p <\infty\), then reflexive subspaces of \(L^{p(\cdot)}(\mu)\) have the fixed point property, but the converse need not hold. In fact, the authors give conditions on \(p(\cdot)\) which imply that \(L^{p(\cdot)}(\mu)\) contains a closed subspace that has the fixed point property despite being hereditarily \(\ell^1\), and hence nonreflexive. The authors also note that, if the sequence \((p_n)\) in \((1,\infty)\) converges to \(1\), the Musielak-Orlicz space \(\ell^{(p_n)}\) endowed with the Luxemburg norm is a nonreflexive space with the fixed point property. Finally, to conclude this well-written and interesting article, the authors prove that a variable Lebesgue space contains an asymptotically isometric copy of \(\ell^1\), a condition frequently used to imply that a Banach space fails to have the fixed point property, if and only if the space contains an isometric copy of~\(\ell^1\).