Nice surjections on spaces of operators (Q861767)

Let \(X,Y\) be Banach spaces. A bounded linear map \(T:X\to Y\) is said to be nice if its adjoint \(T^*\) sends the extreme points of the unit ball of \(Y^*\) to extreme points of the unit ball of \(X^*\). One of the motivations to study nice operators is that every surjective linear isometry between Banach spaces is nice. In this paper, the author studies surjective nice operators on the space \(K(X,Y)\) of all compact operators between given Banach spaces \(X\) and \(Y\). The starting point of this investigation is a description of nice surjections between spaces of compact operators acting on Hilbert spaces due to \textit{L. E. Labuschagne} and \textit{V. Mascioni} [Adv. Math. 138, No. 1, 15--45 (1998; Zbl 0944.46054)]. In the first section, the author considers maps on \(K(X,Y)\) which are of the form \(T\mapsto UTV\) with some operators \(U\) and \(V\). Maps of this form are called composition operators. Sufficient conditions are given in order that such a transformation be a nice surjection. Next, the author presents a result concerning the opposite question, i.e., when a nice surjection of \(K(X,Y)\) is necessarily a composition operator. In the remaining part of the paper, nice operators on the space \(L(X,Y)\) of all bounded linear operators are considered. It is proved that for certain reflexive Banach spaces \(X,Y\), any surjective bounded linear map on \(L(X,Y)\) whose adjoint preserves weak*-continuous extreme points is a composition operator. In the last section, the author presents, among other things, classes of Banach spaces \(X,Y\) for which \(L(X,Y)\) admits nice operators which are not composition operators.