A characterization of reflexive spaces (Q623319)

James's theorem says that a Banach space is reflexive if and only if every bounded linear functional attains its norm. In 1999, I. Namioka asked whether every nonreflexive Banach space \(X\) admits an equivalent norm in which the set of norm attaining functionals has empty norm-interior in \(X^\ast\). A partial answer had been given by \textit{M. Acosta} and \textit{V. Montesinos} [Math. Z. 256, No.~2, 295--300 (2007; Zbl 1126.46004)]; in this paper the authors give a fully positive answer. Their proof is based on a result of Milman, father and son [\textit{D. P. Mil'man} and \textit{V. D. Mil'man}, Mat. Sb., N. Ser. 65 (107), 486--497 (1964; Zbl 0125.34204)], about the existence of some specific basic sequence in nonreflexive spaces, and for which the authors give a simple proof, using James's theorem and Rosenthal's \(\ell_1\) theorem. In a second part, the authors show that for every Banach space which is not a Grothendieck space, the set of norm attaining functionals is not a \(G_\delta\) subset in the weak-star topology of the dual (a Banach space \(X\) is called a Grothendieck space if every weak-star convergent sequence in \(X^\ast\) is weakly convergent; of course, this notion is interesting only if \(X\) is nonseparable; otherwise \(X\) is reflexive; see the review of the paper [\textit{H. P. Lotz}, Isr. J. Math. 176, 209--220 (2010 ; Zbl 1201.46010)] to have a list of examples). This property had been shown to hold in every separable nonreflexive Banach space [\textit{G. Debs, G. Godefroy} and \textit{J. Saint Raymond}, Can. J. Math. 47, No.~2, 318--329 (1995; Zbl 0831.46009)].