Norm-attaining compact operators (Q2253152)

An operator \(T\) between Banach spaces \(X\) and \(Y\) is said to be norm attaining if there exists an \(x \in X\) with \(\|x\|=1\) such that \(\|T\| = \|Tx\|\) (i.e., the supremum defining the operator norm is a maximum). The question of whether every Banach space \(X\) has the property that the norm attaining compact operators from \(X\) to any other Banach space are dense in the space of compact operators goes back at least to the 1970s. The author shows that norm attaining operators from subspaces of \(c_0\) to strictly convex spaces have finite rank and since there are subspaces of \(c_0\) whose dual does not have the approximation property the above question has a negative answer. It is also shown that there exists a Banach space \(Z\) and a compact operator from \(Z\) into \(Z\) which cannot be approximated by norm attaining operators. On the positive side, it is shown that, if \(X\) is a subspace of \(c_0\) with a monotone Schauder basis, then for every \(Y\) the norm attaining compact operators from \(X\) to \(Y\) are dense in the compact operators.