Hereditarily indecomposable, separable \(\mathcal L_{\infty }\) Banach spaces with \(\ell _{1}\) dual having few but not very few operators (Q2890310)

Fix a natural number \(k\geq2\). Then there is a hereditarily indecomposable \(\ell_1\)-predual \(X\) on which every operator is a strictly singular perturbation of a scalar multiple of the identity, and for which the Calkin algebra \({\mathcal L}(X)/{\mathcal K}(X)\) is isomorphic to the algebra of \(k\times k\) upper triangular Toeplitz matrices. In particular, there is a strictly singular, nilpotent operator \(S\) for which the cosets \(S^j+{\mathcal K}(X)\), \(0\leq j<k\), form a basis of the Calkin algebra. One consequence is that \({\mathcal L}(X)\) has exactly \(k\) proper closed ideals. Another, thanks to a well-known theorem of Aronszajn and Smith, is that every operator on \(X\) has a non-trivial invariant subspace. The intricacy of the construction justifies the length of this paper.