Three-space problems for the approximation property

Abstract

It is shown that there is a subspace $Z_q$ of ${\ell }_q$ for $1<q<2$ which is isomorphic to ${\ell }_q$ such that ${\ell }_q/Z_q$ does not have the approximation property. On the other hand, for $2<p<\infty$ there is a subspace $Y_p$ of ${\ell }_p$ such that $Y_p$ does not have the approximation property (AP) but the quotient space ${\ell }_p/Y_p$ is isomorphic to ${\ell }_p$ . The result is obtained by defining random "Enflo-Davie spaces" $Y_p$ which with full probability fail AP for all $2<p\le \infty$ and have AP for all $1\le p\le 2$. For $1<p\le$ 2, $Y_p$ are isomorphic to ${\ell }_p$.