Let X be a reflexive Banach space. This article presents a number of new characterizations of the topology of Mosco convergence TM for convex sets and functions in terms of natural geometric operators and functional. In addition, necessary and sufficient conditions are given for TM to agree with the weak topology generated by {d(x, C): x є X}, where each distance functional is viewed as a function of the set argument.

If a scattered compact space K is such that its ω1-th derived set K(ω1) is empty then the Banach space ℒ(K) admits an equivalent locally uniformly convex norm.

Let X be a completely regular Hausdorff topological space and let C(X) (the set of all real-valued bounded and continuous in X functions) be endowed with the sup-norm. Let ßX, as usual, denotes the Stone-Čech compactification of X. We give a characterization of those X for which the set

contains a dense -subset of C(X). These are just the spaces X which contain a dense Čech complete subspace. We call such spaces almost Čech complete. We also prove that X contains a dense completely metrizable subspace, if, and only if, C(X) contains a dense -subset of functions which determine Tykhonov well-posed optimization problems over X. For a compact Hausdorff topological space X the latter result was proved by Čoban and Kenderov [CK1.CK2]. Relations between the well-posedness and Gâteaux and Fréchet differentiability of convex functionals in C(X) are investigated. In particular it is shown that the sup-norm in C(X) is Frechet differentiable at the points of a dense -subset of C(X), if, and only if, the set of isolated points of X is dense in X. Conditions and examples are given when the set of points of Gateaux differentiability of the sup-norm in C(X) is a dense and Baire subspace of C(X) but does not contain a dense -subset of C(X).

We introduce a new constant in Banach spaces which implies, in certain cases, the weak- or weak*-normal structure.

We introduce a new type of differentiability, called cofinite Fréchet differentiability. We show that the convex point-of-continuity property of Banach spaces is dual to the cofinite Fréchet differentiability of all equivalent norms. A corresponding result for dual spaces with the weak* convex point-of-continuity property is also established.

The 2-ball property is shown to be transitive. Combining this with some results on the decomposability of convex bodies, we produce new examples of Banach spaces which contain proper semi-M-ideals. These semi-M-ideals are not hyperplanes, nor are they the direct sums of examples which are hyperplanes.

We study the minimal length of faithful nuclear representations of operators acting between finite-dimensional Banach spaces and the related minimal number of contact points of the John ellipsoid of maximal volume contained in the unit ball of a finite-dimensional Banach space. In both cases the classical upper estimates, which follow from the Caratheodory theorem, are shown to be exact. Related isometric characterizations of are proved.

J. E. Jayne and C. A. Rogers in [7] introduced the following notion.

Let X be a topological space and p be a metric defined on X × X. X is said to be fragmented by the metric p if, for every ε > 0 and each nonempty subset Y of X there is a nonempty relatively open subset U of Y such that ρ-diam (U)≤ ε.

While investigating Asplund spaces in [15], R. R. Phelps and the author noticed that weak* compact subsets of the duals of Asplund spaces (or equivalently, as it turned out, weak* compact subsets of dual Banach spaces with the Radon-Nikodým property) possessed many properties in common with weakly compact subsets of Banach spaces. The topological study of the spaces homeomorphic to the latter, the so-called Eberlein compact spaces, or EC spaces for short, had flourished and had already yielded a rich collection of results. Therefore it was natural to hope that a similar study of the former might also lead to interesting discoveries. In a series of letters with S. Fitzpatrick exchanged during the summer and the fall of 1981, we started to collect properties of compact spaces that are homeomorphic to weak* compact subsets of the duals of Asplund spaces, which we tentatively called “Asplund compact spaces“. However, as far as we are aware, Reynov's paper [16] is the first study in print of the topological properties of “Asplund compact spaces” or “compacta of RN type” as Reynov termed them.

In our paper [12[ we made extensive use of the details of the proofs given in our earlier paper [11], and, in particular, we claimed that Lemma 3 of [11] holds, not just when Y is a metric space, but also when Y is a Hausdorff space, provided X × Y is a Fréchet space. In a corrigendum to [11], we give a corrected version of this Lemma 3, but it seems to depend, in an essential way, on the assumption that Y is a metric space, or at least a perfectly normal space. In this note we show that a modified version of this Lemma 3 enables us to justify all the theorems in [12] by use of a modified method of selection.

A generalization and simplification of F. John's theorem on ellipsoids of minimum volume is proven. An application shows that for 1 ≤ p < 2, there is a subspace E of Lp and a λ > 1 such that 1E has no λ-unconditional decomposition in terms of rank one operators.

Let ˜ be an equivalence relation on a topological space X. A point x ε X i s stable with respect to ˜ if it is in the interior of an equivalence class. We may also add, if ambiguity arises, that x is stable under perturbations in X. Let E be a Banach space, and let L(E) be the Banach space of continuous linear endomorphisms of E, with norm given by |T| = sup{ |T(x) | : |x| = 1}. In this paper we discuss stability of elements of L(E) with respect to some natural equivalence relations.