Smoothness, asymptotic smoothness and the Blum-Hanson property (Q273095)

If \(X\) is a Hilbert space and \(T: X\to X\) is a contraction, then, if \(T^nx\to 0\) weakly, one even has \[ \Bigl\| \frac1N \sum_{j=1}^N T^{n_j} x \Bigr\| \to 0 \] for every increasing sequence \((n_j)\) of positive integers. The first result in this direction was proved by \textit{J. R.~Blum} and \textit{D. L.~Hanson} [Bull.\ Am.\ Math.\ Soc.\ 66, 308--311 (1960; Zbl 0096.09005)]. If this conclusion holds for all contractions on a given Banach space \(X\), the authors say that \(X\) has the Blum-Hanson property. They make a detailed study of this property and in particular provide sufficient conditions for a space to have the Blum-Hanson property in terms of smoothness of the norm. One such result uses V.~Milman's modulus of asymptotic smoothness \[ \bar\rho_X(x,t) = \inf_E \sup_{y\in B_E} \|x+ty\| -1, \] where the infimum is taken over all finite-codimensional subspaces \(E\) of~\(X\). The authors define what it means that \(X\) has extremal asymptotic smoothness at infinity (the definition is somewhat technical), but the condition \[ \lim_{t\to\infty} (\bar\rho_X(x,t)+1-t) = 0 \qquad \text{for all }x\in X \] is sufficient. (It should be noted that, in contrast to other applications of the Milman modulus, it is the limit \(t\to\infty\) rather than \(t\to 0\) that is important here.) A central result of the paper is that a Banach space with extremal asymptotic smoothness at infinity has the Blum-Hanson property. This criterion is applied to produce a large number of examples of spaces with the Blum-Hanson property, e.g., subspaces of \(\ell_p\), subspaces of spaces with a uniformly Gâteaux smooth norm and a \(1\)-unconditional FDD, subspaces of reflexive Orlicz sequence spaces with the Luxemburg norm, etc. In fact, the examples given in the paper are far more general. On the other hand, many \(C(K)\)-spaces fail the Blum-Hanson property, even its so-called ``conditional'' version. The paper ends with a list of open problems, among them the innocent looking question whether \(\ell_2\oplus_1\ell_2\) has the Blum-Hanson property.