Stability constants of the weak\(^*\) fixed point property for the space \(\ell_{1}\) (Q2400678)

Given a Banach space \((X,\|\cdot\|)\), its dual space \((X^*,\|\cdot\|^*)\) is said to satisfy the \(\sigma(X^*,X)\)-FPP if, for every convex \(\sigma(X^*,X)\)-compact set \(C\subset X^*\) and for every \(\|\cdot\|^*\)-nonexpansive mapping \(T:C\to C\), there is a fixed point. It is well known that the \(w^*\)-FPP strongly depends on the predual that is underlying. For instance, \(\ell_1\) enjoys the \(\sigma(\ell_1,c_0)\)-FPP whereas it fails the \(\sigma(\ell_1,c)\)-FPP. Relying on the essential role of the predual in the fulfilment of the \(w^*\)-FPP, the authors introduce the following definition (slightly different from some previous definitions of the stability of the \(w^*\)-FPP): Given a Banach space \(X\), the dual Banach space \(X^*\) enjoys the stable \(\sigma(X^*,X)\)-FPP if there exists some \(\gamma>1\) such that \(Y^*\) has the \(\sigma(Y^*,Y)\)-FPP whenenever \(d(X,Y)<\gamma\). According to the previous definition, the authors introduce the \(w^*\)-FPP stability coefficient of a Banach space \(X\) as \[ \gamma^*(X)=\sup\{\gamma\geq 1: Y^* \text{ has the } \sigma(Y^*,Y)\text{-FPP} \text{ whenever } d(X,Y)<\gamma\}. \] The paper under review can be considered as the continuation of a first paper published by the authors in [Stud. Math. 241, No. 2, 159--172 (2018; Zbl 1465.46016)], where the concept of stability of the weak\(^*\) fixed point property for preduals of \((\ell_1,\|\cdot\|_1)\) has been broadly studied. In fact, in this first paper, the authors proved that the following assertions are equivalent under the assumption that \(X\) is a Banach space whose dual is isometric to \((\ell_1,\|\cdot\|_1)\) (see Theorem 3.5 in the above-mentioned paper): {\parindent=8mm \begin{itemize}\item[(i)] \(\ell_1\) has the stable \(\sigma(\ell_1,X)\)-FPP. \item[(ii)] There exists some \(r\in [0,1)\) such that the set of \(\sigma(\ell_1,X)\)-accumulation points of the basis \(\{e_n\}\) in \(\ell_1\) is contained in \(\{x\in \ell_1, \| x\|_1\leq r\}\). \end{itemize}} In the development of the proof that assertion (ii) implies (i), given such a constant \(r\), the authors deduced the inequality \[ \gamma^*(X)\geq {2\over 1+r} \] and they raised the question whether the estimation \({2\over 1+r}\) is sharp (see Remark 3.6). With this background, in the paper under review the authors give a positive answer to the above question. For a predual \(X\) of \(\ell_1\), they define \[ r^*(X)=\inf \{r>0: (\mathrm{Ext}(B_{\ell_1}))^\prime\subset rB_{\ell_1}\}, \] where \((\mathrm{Ext}(B_{\ell_1}))^\prime\) denotes the set of \(\sigma(\ell_1,X)\)-limit points of the standard basis \(\{e_n\}\) in \(\ell_1\), and they prove that \[ \gamma^*(X)= {2\over 1+r^*(X)}. \] The proof is very remarkable and inspiring as far as I am concerned. It requires a deep knowledge of a large family of preduals of \(\ell_1\) that the authors denote by \(W_\alpha\) and it is carried out in several technical steps. In the last section of the paper, the authors introduce the following stability constant for a predual \(X\) of \((\ell_1,\|\cdot\|_1)\): \[ \eta^*(X)=\sup\{\eta\geq 1: \;Y^* \text{ has the } \sigma(Y^*,Y)\text{-FPP}\} \] whenever \(Y^*=(\ell_1,\|\cdot\|_1)\) and \(d(X,Y)\leq \eta\). That is, Banach spaces \(Y\) whose duals are isometric to \(\ell_1\) as well are the only ones under consideration. When \(X=c_0\), the authors prove that \(\gamma^*(c_0)=3\). They use the fact that \(d(c_0,c)=3\) and quite striking arguments to prove that \(Y^*\) has the \(\sigma(Y^*,Y)\)-FPP whenever \(Y^*=\ell_1\) and \(d(c_0,Y)<3\).