No label defined (Q4946768)

In this important paper, the authors generalize to the \(L_p\) case the classical notion of volume ratio with respect to ellipsoids (i.e. \(p=2\)). It appears a striking link between these geometric quantities and norms in classical ideal spaces of operators (\(p\)-summing, nuclear, Gordon-Lewis norms). Link between \(1\)-summing operators and volume ratio with respect to zonoids was discovered by \textit{K. Ball} [Lect. Notes Math. 1470, 36-47 (1991; Zbl 0762.46004)]. If \(E\) and \(G\) are Banach spaces, and \(\dim E=n\), set \[ \text{vr}(E,G)=\inf\Big\{\Big({\text{vol }B_E\over \text{vol }T(B_G)}\Big)^{1/n} ;\;T(B_G)\subseteq B_E\Big\} , \] where \(B_E\) and \(B_G\) are, as usual, the closed unit ball of \(E\) and \(G\), respectively. It is shown that there exists an absolute constant \(c_0\) such that, for any \(n\)-dimensional Banach space \(E\), one has \(\text{vr}(E,\ell_2)\leq c_0\sup_{F\subseteq E,\dim F\leq n/2} \text{vr}(F,\ell_\infty)\). In other words, there exists a subspace \(F\subseteq E\) of dimension \(k\leq n/2\) such that \[ \inf_{\text{ellipsoid} {\mathcal E}\subseteq B_E} \Big({\text{vol } B_E\over \text{vol }{\mathcal E}}\Big)^{1/n}\leq c_0\inf_{\text{zonoid} Z\subseteq B_F} \Big({\text{vol }B_F\over \text{vol } Z}\Big)^{1/k}. \] So, though there are many more zonoids than ellipsoids, the volume ratio with respect to ellipsoids is controlled by the volume ratio with respect to zonoids in a section of ``small'' dimension. Many other sharp estimates are also shown. In particular, it is shown that for \(2\leq q\leq p<+\infty\): \[ \sup_{F\subseteq \ell_p, \dim F=n} \inf_{G\subseteq L_q, \dim G=n} d(F,G)\sim_{c_{p,q}}n^{(q/2)(1/q-1/p)}. \]