We consider the compact spaces σₙ(Γ) of subsets of Γ of cardinality at most n and their countable products. We give a complete classification of their Banach spaces of continuous functions and a partial topological classification.

We introduce and study the notion of hereditarily A-indecomposable Banach space for A a space ideal. For a hereditarily A-indecomposable space X we show that the operators from X into a Banach space Y can be written as the union of two sets A Φ+(X,Y) and A(X;Y ). For some ideals A defined in terms of incomparability, the first set is open, the second set correspond to a closed operator ideal and the union is disjoint.

We study the class of descriptive compact spaces, the Banach spaces generated by descriptive compact subsets and their relation to renorming problems.

We prove a game-theoretic dichotomy for $G_{\delta \sigma }$ sets of block sequences in vector spaces that extends, on the one hand, the block Ramsey theorem of W. T. Gowers proved for analytic sets of block sequences and, on the other hand, M. Davis’ proof of Σ⁰₃ determinacy.

For a countable compact metric space and a seminormalized weakly null sequence (fₙ)ₙ in C() we provide some upper bounds for the norm of the vectors in the linear span of a subsequence of (fₙ)ₙ. These bounds depend on the complexity of and also on the sequence (fₙ)ₙ itself. Moreover, we introduce the class of c₀-hierarchies. We prove that for every α < ω₁, every normalized weakly null sequence (fₙ)ₙ in $C\left({\omega }^{{\omega }^{\alpha }}\right)$ and every c₀-hierarchy generated by (fₙ)ₙ, there exists β ≤ α such that a sequence of β-blocks...

The results of the first part concern the existence of higher order ℓ₁ spreading models in asymptotic ℓ₁ Banach spaces. We sketch the proof of the fact that the mixed Tsirelson space T[(ₙ,θₙ)ₙ], ${\theta }_{n+m}\ge \theta ₙ\theta ₘ$ and $li{m}_n\theta {ₙ}^{1/n}=1$, admits an $\ell {₁}^{\omega }$ spreading model in every block subspace. We also prove that if X is a Banach space with a basis, with the property that there exists a sequence (θₙ)ₙ ⊂ (0,1) with $li{m}_n\theta {ₙ}^{1/n}=1$, such that, for every n ∈ ℕ, $\left|\right|{\sum }_{k=1}^m{x}_k\left|\right|\ge \theta ₙ{\sum }_{k=1}^m\left|\right|x_k\left|\right|$ for every ₙ-admissible block sequence ${\left(x_k\right)}_{k=1}^m$ of vectors in X, then there exists c > 0 such...

We prove that a Banach space admitting an equivalent WUR norm is an Asplund space. Some related dual renormings are also presented.

This paper deals with the following types of problems: Assume a Banach space X has some property (P). Can it be embedded into some Banach space Z with a finite dimensional decomposition having property (P), or more generally, having a property related to (P)? Secondly, given a class of Banach spaces, does there exist a Banach space in this class, or in a closely related one, which is universal for this class?

In the spirit of the classical Banach-Stone theorem, we prove that if K and S are intervals of ordinals and X is a Banach space having non-trivial cotype, then the existence of an isomorphism T from C(K, X) onto C(S,X) with distortion $\left|\right|T\left|\right|\left|\right|T^{-1}\left|\right|$ strictly less than 3 implies that some finite topological sum of K is homeomorphic to some finite topological sum of S. Moreover, if Xⁿ contains no subspace isomorphic to $X^{n+1}$ for every n ∈ ℕ, then K is homeomorphic to S. In other words, we obtain a vector-valued Banach-Stone...

We introduce a notion of disjoint envelope functions to study asymptotic structures of Banach spaces. The main result gives a new characterization of asymptotic-${\ell }_p$ spaces in terms of the ${\ell }_p$-behavior of “disjoint-permissible” vectors of constant coefficients. Applying this result to Tirilman spaces we obtain a negative solution to a conjecture of Casazza and Shura. Further investigation of the disjoint envelopes leads to a finite-representability result in the spirit of the Maurey-Pisier theorem.