Subdifferentiability and polyhedrality of the norm (Q6058396)

As the author explains, it can be seen that for \(C^*\)-algebras the concepts of strong subdifferentiability of the norm (SSD) and weak Hahn-Banach smoothness coincide. In Theorem~4 it is shown that the weak Namioka-Phelps property (which in general implies SSD of the norm (Theorem~1)) adds to the properties that characterize the norm being SSD in \(C^*\)-algebras. Next, the author investigates when the norm of an \(L_1\)-predual space \(X\) is SSD. In Theorems~8 and 6 it is shown that then \(X\) is quasi polyhedral and is a predual of some \(\ell_1(\Gamma)\), where \(\Gamma\) is infinite and discrete. Concerning the commutative case, the paper ends by proving (Theorem~10) that the only weak Hahn-Banach smooth function algebras are the finite-dimensional \(\ell_\infty\)-spaces, i.e., \(\mathbb{C}^n\) with supremum norm. Throughout, the results are supported by illustrating examples and informative remarks.