Let X,Y be Banach spaces, f: X → Y be an isometry with f(0) = 0, and $T:\overline{span}\left(f\left(X\right)\right)\to X$ be the Figiel operator with $T\circ f=I{d}_X$ and ||T|| = 1. We present a sufficient and necessary condition for the Figiel operator T to admit a linear isometric right inverse. We also prove that such a right inverse exists when $\overline{span}\left(f\left(X\right)\right)$ is weakly nearly strictly convex.

We consider the problem of isometric embedding of metric spaces into Banach spaces, and introduce and study the remarkable class of so-called linearly rigid metric spaces: these are the spaces that admit a unique, up to isometry, linearly dense isometric embedding into a Banach space. The first nontrivial example of such a space was given by R. Holmes; he proved that the universal Urysohn space has this property. We give a criterion of linear rigidity of a metric space, which allows us to give a...

We study the local dual spaces of a Banach space X, which can be described as the subspaces of X* that have the properties that the principle of local reflexivity attributes to X as a subspace of X**. We give several characterizations of local dual spaces, which allow us to show many examples. Moreover, every separable space X has a separable local dual Z, and we can choose Z with the metric approximation property if X has it. We also show that a separable space containing no...