The Bishop-Phelps-Bollobás property for operators between spaces of continuous functions (Q2637026)

Let \(X\) be a Banach space and let \(x^*\) be a continuous functional on \(X\). We say that \(x^*\) attains its norm if there exists \(x \in S_X\) with \(x^*(x)= \|x^*\|\). \textit{E. Bishop} and \textit{R.R. Phelps} [Bull. Am. Math. Soc. 67, 97--98 (1961; Zbl 0098.07905)] proved that every continuous functional \(x^*\) on \(X\) can be approximated by a norm-attaining functional \(y^*\). \textit{B. Bollobás} [Bull. Lond. Math. Soc. 2, 181--182 (1970; Zbl 0217.45104)] extended this result and showed that, if \(x^*\) is a continuous functional on \(X\) and \(x \in S_X\) a point where \(x^*\) almost attains its norm, then \(x^*\) can be approximated by a norm-attaining functional \(y^*\) and \(y^*\) attains its norm at a point which is close to \(x\). Let \(X\) and \(Y\) be Banach spaces and denote by \(L(X,Y)\) the space of all bounded operators from \(X\) into \(Y\). A subspace \(M\) of \(L(X,Y)\) is said to have the Bishop-Phelps-Bollobás property if the following is valid: For every \(\varepsilon > 0\) there exists \(\delta > 0\) such that, whenever \(T \in S_M\) and \(x \in S_X\) satisfy that \(\|T(x)\| > 1- \delta\), then there exist \(S \in S_M\) and \(y \in S_X\) with \(\|S(y)\|=1\), \(\|x-y\| <\varepsilon\), and \(\|T-S\| < \varepsilon\). If \(L(X,Y)\) has the Bishop-Phelps-Bollobás property, then we say that the pair \((X,Y)\) has the Bishop-Phelps-Bollobás property for operators. The authors show that, if \(K_1\) and \(K_2\) are compact Hausdorff spaces, then the pair \((C(K_1), C(K_2))\) has the Bishop-Phelps-Bollobás property for operators in the real case. This extends a result due to \textit{J. Johnson} and \textit{J. Wolfe} [Stud. Math. 65, 7--19 (1979; Zbl 0432.47024)] that the set of norm-attaining operators from \(C(K_1)\) into \(C(K_2)\) is dense in \(L(C(K_1),C(K_2))\). The authors furthermore prove that the space of compact operators from \(C_0(K)\) into \(Y\) has the Bishop-Phelps-Bollobás property if \(K\) is a locally compact Hausdorff space and \(Y\) is uniformly convex, and that the space of compact operators from \(X\) into \(Y\) has the Bishop-Phelps-Bollobás property if \(Y\) is a predual of an \(L^1\)-space.