Semi-inner products and operators which attain their norm (Q2231989)

In [\textit{D.~Koehler} and \textit{P.~Rosenthal}, Stud. Math. 36, 213--216 (1970; Zbl 0201.15802)], it was shown that a linear isometry \(U \in {\mathcal L}(X)\) preserves some semi-inner-product. In the present paper, this result is generalized by proving that, if an operator \(T \in {\mathcal L}(X)\) of norm one attains its norm, then there is a semi-inner-product \( [\cdot|\diamond]: X \times X \to \mathbb F\), where \(\mathbb F\) is \(\mathbb R\) or \(\mathbb C\), such that the operator \(T\) preserves this semi-inner-product on the norm attaining set. More precisely, the equality \([T(\cdot)|Tx]=[\cdot|x]\) holds for all \(x\) in the set \(\{y \in X: \|y\|=1\) and \( \|Ty\|=1\}\).