Isomorphisms between spaces of Lipschitz functions (Q2317983)

This interesting article shows that the spaces of real-valued Lipschitz functions defined on two metric spaces \(N\) and \(M\) are isomorphic provided that the spaces \(N\) and \(M\) have somehow the same shape, or the same geometry in the sense of Gromov. To be more precise, the authors consider discrete groups \(N\), seen as nets in Lie groups \(M\), and conclude that, under proper assumptions, the spaces of real-valued Lipschitz functions on \(N\) and \(M\) are isomorphic. A typical example is \(N=\mathbb{Z}^d\) and \(M=\mathbb{R}^d\). More generally, if \(\Gamma\) is a finitely generated nilpotent torsion-free group, seen as a net in its Mal'cev closure \(G\), and if \(G\) is isomorphic to the Carnot group \(G_\infty\) associated with \(\Gamma\) (a frequently satisfied condition), then the spaces of Lipschitz functions on \(\Gamma\), \(G\) and \(G_\infty\) are isomorphic. It is interesting to notice that these isomorphisms are in general not explicit, and that they are not induced by isomorphisms between the preduals, that is, between the corresponding Lipschitz-free spaces. It is also shown that, if \(1\leq p <\infty\), the spaces of real-valued Lipschitz functions over \(l_p\) and \(L_p\) are isomorphic, and a related result is shown for Orlicz sequence spaces and the corresponding Orlicz function spaces. A list of open problems concludes this work, which should be influential.