Density of finite rank operators in the Banach space of \(p\)-compact operators (Q984807)

The article under review deals with concepts that have been previously treated by \textit{D. P. Sinha} and \textit{A. K. Karn} [Stud. Math. 150, 17--33 (2002; Zbl 1008.46008)]. A~Banach space \(X\) is said to have the \(k_p\)-approximation property (\(k_p\)-AP) if, for every Banach space \(Y\), the space \(\mathcal F(Y,X)\) of finite rank operators is dense in the space \(\mathcal K_p(Y,X)\) of \(p\)-compact operators endowed with its natural ideal norm \(k_p(T):= \inf \{ (\sum_n \| {x_n}\|^p)^{1/p}: (x_n) \in \ell_p(X) \text{ and } T(B_Y) \subset p\text{-conv}(x_n)\}\). Here, an operator \(T:Y \rightarrow X\) is called \(p\)-compact if it maps bounded subsets of \(Y\) to relatively \(p\)-compact subsets of \(X\), i.e., subsets \(K\subseteq X\) such that there exists \(x=(x_n)_n\in \ell_p(X)\) so that \(K\subseteq p\text{-conv}(x_n):=\{\sum_n a_n x_n\); \((a_n)_n\in B_{\ell_{p'}}\}\) (\(p'\) being the conjugate exponent of \(p\)). In [\textit{J. M. Delgado, E. Oja, C. Piñeiro} and \textit{E. Serrano}, J. Math. Anal. Appl. 354, 159--164 (2009; Zbl 1168.46008)], it was shown that a Banach space \(X\) has the \(p\)-approximation property (i.e., the identity map \(I_X\) on \(X\) can be approximated by finite rank operators uniformly on every \(p\)-compact subset of \(X\)) if and only if in the above the norm \(k_p\) is replaced by the usual operator norm \(\| \cdot \|\). It is then natural to study the relationship between these two notions of approximation properties. The authors provide a characterization of the \(k_p\)-AP of dual Banach spaces via density of finite rank operators in the space of quasi \(p\)-nuclear operators for the \(p\)-summing norm. This shows, in particular, that the notions of \(p\)-AP and \(k_p\)-AP are different from each other in general. Furthermore, this also allows to obtain a relation between the \(k_p\)-AP and Saphar's approximation property. As another application, the \(k_p\)-AP is characterized in terms of a trace condition. Finally, the authors relate the \(k_p\)-AP to the \((p,p)\)-approximation property introduced in the mentioned article by Sinha and Karn for subspaces of \(L^p(\mu )\)-spaces (in fact, these two notions overlap in this special case).