Non-commutative analogues of weak compactness criteria in symmetric spaces (Q2656201)

The weak compactness criteria alluded to in the title go back to the following three ones in \(L^1(\nu)\)-spaces over a finite measure \(\nu\), to wit \begin{itemize} \item Dunford-Pettis' well-known classical equivalence of weak compactness and equi-in\-te\-gra\-bi\-li\-ty (for bounded sets); \item De la Vallée Poussin's equivalence of weak compactness and the existence of an $N$-function \(G\) (which is an Orlicz function satisfying some additional continuity conditions) such that \(\sup\{\int G(|f|)\}<\infty\), where the \(\sup\) runs over all \(f\) belonging to the set in question; \item Chong's description of weakly compact sets as exactly those which are ``in the orbit'' of an appropriate positive integrable function \(g\), more precisely, which are contained in the set \(\{f : |f|\prec\prec g\}\) where the symbol \(f\prec\prec g\) stands for the condition \(\int_0^t\mu(f)\le\int_0^t\mu(g)\) for all \(t\) with \(\mu(f)\) being the decreasing rearrangement of \(|f|\). \end{itemize} There is a further criterion of \textit{T.~Ando} [Can. J. Math. 14, 170--176 (1962; Zbl 0103.32902)] concerning weak compactness with respect to Köthe duality in Orlicz spaces \(L_G\). (In some cases, this topology coincides with the usual (Banach space) weak topology considered in the article under review.) The setting of the paper is the one of non-commutative Orlicz spaces \(\mathcal{L}_G(\mathcal{M},\tau)\) (in particular, non-commutative Lebesgue spaces \(\mathcal{L}_p(\mathcal{M})\)) and of non-commutative symmetric operator spaces \(\mathcal{E}=\mathcal{E}(\mathcal{M},\tau)\), both associated in the natural way to a von Neumann algebra \(\mathcal{M}\) with a semifinite faithful normal trace \(\tau\). The authors generalize known results on weak compactness criteria to this context. They show, for example, an analogue of Ando's criterion for non-commutative Orlicz spaces. They also show the equivalence of De la Vallée Poussin's and Chong's criteria for non-commutative \(\mathcal{L}_1(\mathcal{M})\) where \(\mathcal{M}\) is non-atomic finite, more precisely, for a bounded subset \(\mathcal{K}\) of \(\mathcal{L}_1(\mathcal{M})\) there exists an Orlicz function \(G\) with \(G(t)/t\to\infty\) as \(t\to\infty\) and \(\sup_{A\in\mathcal{K}}\tau(G(|A|))<\infty\) if and only if there exists a positive operator \(B\in\mathcal{L}_1(\mathcal{M})\) such that \(\mu(|A|)\prec\prec\mu(B)\) for all \(A\in\mathcal{K}\). (Here, \(\tau(G(|A|))\) is defined in the natural way so that it equals \(\int G(|A|)\) in the case where \(\mathcal{M}\) is the classical \(L^\infty\), and \(\mu(|A|)\) is the singular value function of \(|A|\) which generalizes the rearrangement function in the case \(\mathcal{M}=L^\infty\).) In another direction. the authors study weak compactness in the context of Peł\-\-czyns\-ki's property (V). $M$-embedded Banach spaces have this property. (A~Banach space \(X\) is $M$-embedded if \(X^{***}=X^*\oplus_1 X^{\perp}\) where \(X^{\perp}=\{x^{***}\in X^{***}\,:\,x^{***}_{|X}=0\}\).) For classical Orlicz spaces it is known that \(H_G(0,\infty)=\{f\,:\,\int_0^\infty G(|f|/\rho)<\infty\), \(\forall\rho>0\}\) is $M$-embedded in \(L_G\) if the conjugate function \(G^*\) of \(G\) satisfies the \(\Delta_2\)-condition while \(G\) does not. Now the authors show that the corresponding non-commutative Orlicz spaces \(\mathcal{H}_G\) are $M$-embedded, too, and thus have property (V). Finally, there is a criterion for compactness: Let \(\mathcal{F}\) be a bounded subset of a separable symmetric Banach space \(\mathcal{E}(\mathcal{M})\), where \(\mathcal{M}\) is hyperfinite, such that it is the \(w^*\)-closure of countably many increasing finite dimensional subalgebras \(\mathcal{M}_n\) with conditional expectations \(\mathbb{E}_n\). Then \(\mathcal{F}\) is relatively weakly compact if and only if \(\sup_{x\in\mathcal{F}}\|x-\mathbb{E}_nx\|_{\mathcal{E}(\mathcal{M})}\to0\).