Quotient algebras of Banach operator ideals related to non-classical approximation properties

Abstract

We investigate the quotient algebra $\mathfrak{A}_X^{\mathcal I}:=\mathcal I(X)/\overline{\mathcal F(X)}^{||\cdot||_{\mathcal I}}$ for Banach operator ideals $\mathcal I$ contained in the ideal of the compact operators, where $X$ is a Banach space that fails the $\mathcal I$-approximation property. The main results concern the nilpotent quotient algebras $\mathfrak A_X^{\mathcal{QN}_p}$ and $\mathfrak A_X^{\mathcal{SK}_p}$ for the quasi $p$-nuclear operators $\mathcal{QN}_p$ and the Sinha-Karn $p$-compact operators $\mathcal{SK}_p$. The results include the following: (i) if $X$ has cotype 2, then $\mathfrak A_X^{\mathcal{QN}_p}=\{0\}$ for every $p\ge 1$; (ii) if $X^*$ has cotype 2, then $\mathfrak A_X^{\mathcal{SK}_p}=\{0\}$ for every $p\ge 1$; (iii) the exact upper bound of the index of nilpotency of $\mathfrak A_X^{\mathcal{QN}_p}$ and $\mathfrak A_X^{\mathcal{SK}_p}$ for $p\neq 2$ is $\max\{2,\left \lceil p/2 \right \rceil\}$, where $\left \lceil p/2 \right \rceil$ denotes the smallest $n\in\mathbb N$ such that $n\ge p/2$; (iv) for every $p>2$ there is a closed subspace $X\subset c_0$ such that both $\mathfrak A_X^{\mathcal{QN}_p}$ and $\mathfrak A_X^{\mathcal{SK}_p}$ contain a countably infinite decreasing chain of closed ideals. In addition, our methods yield a closed subspace $X\subset c_0$ such that the compact-by-approximable algebra $\mathfrak A_X=\mathcal K(X)/\mathcal A(X)$ contains two incomparable countably infinite chains of nilpotent closed ideals.