Traces on operator ideals defined over the class of all Banach spaces and related open problems (Q6113051)

The author is one of the main contributors to the classical theory of traces of operators on Banach spaces, and his monograph [\textit{A. Pietsch}, Eigenvalues and $s$-numbers. Cambridge University Press (1987; Zbl 0615.47019)] has become the main classical reference on the topic. This survey article addresses the extension to singular traces, giving a complete picture of the current situation of the research on this area, and a perspective of possible future developments. The \(k\)-th ordering number of a bounded sequence \(a = (a_{h})\) is defined as \(o_{k}(a) = \sup_{h \geq k} \vert a_{h} \vert\). A~quasi-Banach shift-monotone sequence ideal is a linear subspace \(\mathfrak{z}\) of \(\ell_{\infty}\), endowed with a quari-norm \(\Vert \cdot \vert_{\mathfrak{z}} \Vert\) that is invariant under the forward shift \(S_{+}\) and satisfying that, if \(a \in \ell_{\infty}\), \(b \in \mathfrak{z}\) and \(o_{k}(a) \leq o_{k}(b)\), then \(a \in \mathfrak{z}\) (it is \(o_{k}-solid\)) and \(\Vert a \vert_{\mathfrak{z}}\Vert \leq \Vert b \vert_{\mathfrak{z}}\Vert\). It is assumed that \(\Vert e_{0} \vert_{\mathfrak{z}}\Vert =1\). For an operator \(S\) between Banach spaces, \(a_{k}(S)\) denotes the \(k\)-th approximation number. A~quasi-Banach shift-monotone sequence ideal \(\mathfrak{z}\) defines an operator ideal, denoted \(\mathfrak{L}^{\mathrm{APP}}_{\mathfrak{z}}\), consisting of those operators \(S\) for which \(\big(a_{k}(S) \big) \in \mathfrak{z}\). The first section of the paper studies the structure of these ideals. A~\(\mathfrak{z}\)-representation of an operator \(S\) is of the form \(S=\sum_{h=0}^{\infty} S_{h}\), where each \(S_{h}\) has rank \(\leq 2^{h}\) and \(\big( S - \sum_{h=0}^{k-1} S_{h} \big) \in \mathfrak{z}\). Then the ideal \(\mathfrak{L}^{\mathrm{APP}}_{\mathfrak{z}}\) just consists of operators that are \(\mathfrak{z}\)-representable. Moreover, the quais-norm induced by \(\mathfrak{z}\) is equivalent to the norm given by \(\inf \Big\Vert \big( S - \sum_{h=0}^{k-1} S_{h} \big) \big\vert_{\mathfrak{z}} \big\Vert\). Conversely, each quasi-Banach operator ideal \(\mathfrak{A}(\ell_{2})\) defines a quasi-Banach shift-monotone sequence ideal by \(\mathfrak{A}_{\mathfrak{z}} = \{ a \in \ell_{\infty} : D_{a} \in \mathfrak{A}(\ell_{2}) \}\) (where \(D_{a}\) stands for the diagonal operator defined by \(a\)). In this way there is a one-to-one correspondence between operator ideals and shift-monotone sequence ideals. This correspondence is carefully analysed. It is shown that an operator ideal coincides with some \(\mathfrak{L}^{\mathrm{APP}}_{\mathfrak{z}}\) if and only if it is \((a_{2^{k}})\)-solid. Also, every \((a_{2^{k}})\)-solid operator ideal is uniquely determined by its Hilbert space component \(\mathfrak{A}(\ell_{2})\). Considering \(\mathfrak{A}\)-approximation numbers, \(a_{n}(S \vert \mathfrak{A})\) and a quasi-Banach shift-monotone sequence ideal \(\mathfrak{z}\), a new operator ideal (denoted \(\mathfrak{A}^{\mathrm{APP}}_{\mathfrak{z}}\)) is defined by considering those \(S \in \mathfrak{A}\) for which \(\big( a_{2^n}(S \vert \mathfrak{A}) \big) \in \mathfrak{z}\). Traces defined on such ideals are studied. For every \(\frac{1}{2}S_{+}\)-invariant linear form \(\varphi\) on \(\mathfrak{z}\) the value \(\varphi_{\mathfrak{z}}(S) = \varphi \big(\frac{1}{2^{k}} \mathrm{trace} (S_{k}) \big)\) does not depend on the choice of the \(\mathfrak{z}\)-representation \(\sum_{h=0}^{\infty} S_{h}\), and defines a trace \(\varphi_{s}\) on \(\mathfrak{L}^{\mathrm{APP}}_{\mathfrak{z}}\). Moreover, \(\varphi_{s}\) is bounded whenever \(\varphi\) is so. The notion of exact trace type \(1/r\) operator ideal is introduced, and the previous result is extended to \(\frac{1}{2^{1/r}}S_{+}\)-invariant linear forms on exact trace \(1/r\) operator ideals and \(\mathfrak{z}\) the ideal of sequences so that \(\vert a_{h} \vert = O \big( \frac{1}{2^{h/r}} \big)\). The fist section of the paper is concluded by showing that \(\mathfrak{A}^{\mathrm{APP}}_{\mathfrak{z}}\) is a quasi-Banach operator ideal whenever \(\mathfrak{A}\) and \(\mathfrak{z}\) are quasi-Banach ideals. The second section is dedicated to suggest possible further developments on the area, by collecting up to 27 open problems. These are grouped in different topics: spectrum of shift operators, traces and traceless operator ideals, spectral traces, the ideal of \((r,2)\)-summing operators, operator ideals generated by Weyl or entropy numbers, Banach spaces with few operators, strange traces or extending traces.