Steinhaus' lattice-point problem for Banach spaces (Q333860)

Let us say that an infinite subset \(A\) of a Banach space \(X\) is quasi-finite if any ball in \(X\) meets only finitely many members of \(A\). In a quite recent paper [Colloq. Math. 123, No. 1, 129--132 (2011; Zbl 1223.46023)], \textit{P. Zwoleński} extended a famous result by H. Steinhaus in the Euclidean plane, proving that for any Hilbert space \(X\) the following property holds: {\parindent=6mm \begin{itemize}\item[(S)] For any quasi-finite subset \(A\) of \(X\), there exists a set \(Y\) dense in \(X\) such that, for every \(y \in Y\) and \(n \in \mathbb N\), there exists a ball \(B\) centered at \(y\) that meets exactly \(n\) points of \(A\). \end{itemize}} In this very instructive paper, the authors considerably extend the above result: in fact, they prove that any strictly convex Banach space \(X\) enjoys property (S), while there exist Banach spaces that lack it, such as the space \(C_0(K)\) where \(K\) is a compact Hausdorff space with \(|K| \geq 2\). Moreover, for any measure space \((\Omega, \Sigma, \mu)\), the space \(L_1(\mu)\) enjoys (S) if and only if \(\Omega\) contains at most one atom. In fact, they show that, in general, property (S) turns out to be strictly weaker than strict convexity except for two-dimensional spaces, by proving that, whenever \(\text{dim}\, X > 2\) and \(X\) admits a renorming with property (S), \(X\) admits also a non-strictly convex renorming with property (S). Without assuming the continuum hypothesis, this is the case of the Bochner space \(L_1\bigl(\mu, l_\infty(\Gamma)\bigr)\), where \(\Gamma\) is an uncountable cardinal number less than continuum, that enjoys (S), and it is well known not to admit strictly convex renormings at all. Hence property (S) in general appears to be weaker than strict convexity, even up to renorming. The main tool throughout the paper is the following geometric characterization of property \((S)\) shown by the authors: \(X\) enjoys (S) if and only if, for any \(x,y\) with \(x\neq y\) in the unit sphere of \(X\) and \(\delta > 0\), there exists \(z \in X\) with \(\| z \| < \delta\) such that \(\|x+z\| \neq \|y+z\|\).