Minimal projections onto hyperplanes in \(\ell_p^n\) (Q906364)

For a Banach space \(X\) and a closed subspace \(V\) of \(X\) denote by \(P(X,V)\) the set of linear projections of \(X\) onto \(V\), i.e., linear continuous operators \(P:X\to V\) such that \(Pv=v\) for all \(v\in V\), and let \(\lambda(V,X)=\inf\{\|P\| : P\in P(X,V) \} \) be the relative projection constant of \(X\) onto \(V\). The paper is concerned with the difficult problem of the calculation and evaluation of this constant in finite-dimensional \(\ell_p\)-spaces. The introductory part of the paper contains a brief survey of previous results obtained in this area. A good introduction to the subject is given in the book [\textit{W. Odyniec} and \textit{G. Lewicki}, Minimal projections in Banach spaces. Problems of existence and uniqueness and their application. Berlin etc.: Springer-Verlag (1990; Zbl 1062.46500)], as well as in Part III of the book [\textit{P. Wojtaszczyk}, Banach spaces for analysts. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press (1996; Zbl 0858.46002)]. The main purpose of the paper is to compute \(\lambda(\)ker\(\{1\},\ell_p^n)\), where ker\(\{1\}\) denotes the maximal subspace of \(\ell_p^n\) given by \(\{x\in \ell_p^n : \sum_{i=1}^n x_i=0\}\), extending to arbitrary dimension the results obtained in the cases \(n=3\) and \(n=4\) by the second named author [Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 137, No. 8, 2661--2669 (2009; Zbl 1173.41017)]. These results are also important in view of the conjecture that \(\lambda(H,\ell_p^n)\leq \lambda(\)ker\(\{1\},\ell_p^n)\) for every hyperplane \(H\) in \(\ell_p^n\), i.e., ker\(\{1\}\) is suspected to be the ``worst'' (from this point of view) among the maximal subspaces of \(\ell_p^n\). The authors' approach also yields a new proof and an improvement of the estimation given by \textit{C. Franchetti} [Boll. Unione Mat. Ital., VII. Ser., B 4, No. 4, 803--821 (1990; Zbl 0739.46014)] for \(\lambda(H,L_p[0,1])\), \(H\) a hyperplane in \(L_p[0,1]\).