Shellable weakly compact subsets of \(C[0,1]\) (Q522646)

Let \(Y\) be a Banach space and \(\mathcal{X}\) be some collection of Banach spaces. The authors call a subset \(K\subset Y\) shellable by \(\mathcal{X}\) if \(K\) can be covered by some operator range from a member of \(\mathcal{X}\). Weakly compact sets are shellable by reflexive spaces [\textit{W. J. Davis} et al., J. Funct. Anal. 17, 311--327 (1974; Zbl 0306.46020)] and weakly compact solid sets in Banach lattices are shellable by reflexive Banach lattices [\textit{C. D. Aliprantis} and \textit{O. Burkinshaw}, Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 283, 369--381 (1984; Zbl 0521.47017)]. It was demonstrated by \textit{M. Talagrand} [Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 96, 95--102 (1986; Zbl 0592.46019)] that not all weakly compact sets in Banach lattices are shellable by reflexive Banach lattices when he constructed a compact such set of continuous functions on \([0,1]\), homeomorphic to the ordinal \(\omega^{\omega^2}+1\). Talagrand asked what is the lowest possible ordinal for a weakly compact set \(K\subset C[0,1]\) in order not to be shellable by reflexive Banach lattices. In the paper under review the authors begin by showing that a lower bound for this ordinal must be \(\omega^\omega +1\) (Theorem 3.1). Based on this, the authors set forward to find a weakly compact non-shellable by Banach lattices set \(K\subset C[0,1]\), and succeed. The construction is based upon combinatorics on the Schreier family.