Lineability of the set of supporting vectors (Q2222834)

Let \(T\) be a continuous linear operator between normed spaces \(X\) and \(Y\) over \(\mathbb{R}\). A vector \(x\in X\) is called a supporting vector of \(T\) if \(\left\Vert Tx\right\Vert =\left\Vert T\right\Vert \left\Vert x\right\Vert \); the set of supporting vectors of \(T\) is denoted by \textrm{suppv}\((T)\). A subset \(\mathcal{F}\) of \(X\) is called \(\lambda\)-lineable (= \(\lambda\)-spaceable) if \(\mathcal{F}\cup\{0\}\) contains a closed vector space of dimension \(\lambda\). Similarly \(\mathcal{F}\) is said to be \(\gamma\)-coneable if there is a cone \(C\subseteq\mathcal{F}\) containing \(\gamma\) linearly independent vectors (see for example the survey [\textit{L. Bernal-González} et al., Bull. Am. Math. Soc., New Ser. 51, No. 1, 71--130 (2014; Zbl 1292.46004)]). The present paper explores criteria for \(\lambda\)-lineability and \(\lambda\)-coneability of \textrm{suppv}\((T)\). The following are some examples. If \(x^{\ast}\) is a nonzero functional on \(X\) then \text{suppv}\((x^{\ast})\) is \(1\)- but not \(2\)-lineable and if \(X\) is strictly convex then it is also true that \text{suppv}\((x^{\ast})\) is \(1\)- but not \(2\)-coneable (strictly convex means that \(\left\Vert x+y\right\Vert =\left\Vert x\right\Vert +\left\Vert y\right\Vert \) only if \(x\) and \(y\) are linearly dependent). More generally for any nonzero \(T\) we have \text{suppv}\((T)\cap\ker(T)=\{0\}\); hence if \(\ker(T)\ \)has codimension \(n\) then \text{suppv}\((T)\) is at most \(n\)-lineable. If \(X\) and \(Y\) are Hilbert spaces then, under quite weak conditions, \text{suppv}\((T)\) is a subspace of \(X\). If \(X\) is a separable Hilbert space with orthonormal basis \((x_{n})_{n\in\mathbb{N}}\) and \((\rho_{n})\) is a bounded sequence of scalars with \(\rho:=\sup_{n}\rho_{n}\); then \(T(x):=\sum_{n}\rho_{n}(x|x_{n})x_{n}\) (\(x\in X\)) defines an operator \(T\) on \(X\) such that \text{suppv}\((T)\) is the closure of \(\left\{ x_{n}~|~\rho_{n}=\rho\right\} \). There are similar results on coneability and many examples to illustrate when (and when not) some of these results can be extended to spaces over \(\mathbb{C}\).