\(\alpha\)-large families and applications to Banach space theory (Q2452041)

The Tsirelson space is a separable reflexive Banach space which contains no copy of \(\ell_p\), \(1 < p < \infty\). It is not known if a non-separable version of this space exists. However, this space has also the property that it only has \(\ell_1\) as a spreading model. In this paper, the authors construct for every countable ordinal \(\alpha\) a non-separable reflexive Banach space \({\mathfrak X}_{2^{\aleph_0}}^\alpha\) with an unconditional basis with length of the continuum and which has only \(\ell_1^\alpha\) as a spreading model. For that purpose, they introduce the notion of \(\alpha\)-large families of finite subsets of an infinite set, based on the transfinite hierarchy of the Schreier families \({\mathcal S}_\alpha\), \(\alpha < \omega_1\), and prove the existence of such families of cardinality \(2^{\aleph_0}\).