Almost square Banach spaces
We single out and study a natural class of Banach spaces -- almost square Banach spaces. In an almost square space we can find, given a finite set $x_1,x_2,\ldots,x_N$ in the unit sphere, a unit vector $y$ such that $\|x_i-y\|$ is almost one. These spaces have duals that are octahedral and finite convex combinations of slices of the unit ball of an almost square space have diameter 2. We provide several examples and characterizations of almost square spaces. We prove that non-reflexive spaces which are M-ideals in their biduals are almost square. We show that every separable space containing a copy of $c_0$ can be renormed to be almost square. A local and a weak version of almost square spa…
On Daugavet indices of thickness
Inspired by R. Whitley's thickness index the last named author recently introduced the Daugavet index of thickness of Banach spaces. We continue the investigation of the behavior of this index and also consider two new versions of the Daugavet index of thickness, which helps us solve an open problem which connect the Daugavet indices with the Daugavet equation. Moreover, we will improve the formerly known estimates of the behavior of Daugavet index on direct sums of Banach spaces by establishing sharp bounds. As a consequence of our results we prove that, for every $0<\delta<2$, there exists a Banach space where the infimum of the diameter of convex combinations of slices of the unit ball i…