Isomorphisms of $\mathcal{C}(K, E)$ spaces and height of $K$

Abstract

Let $K_1$, $K_2$ be compact Hausdorff spaces and $E_1, E_2$ be Banach spaces not containing a copy of $c_0$. We establish lower estimates of the Banach-Mazur distance between the spaces of continuous functions $\mathcal{C}(K_1, E_1)$ and $\mathcal{C}(K_2, E_2)$ based on the ordinals $ht(K_1)$, $ht(K_2)$, which are new even for the case of spaces of real valued functions on ordinal intervals. As a corollary we deduce that $\mathcal{C}(K_1, E_1)$ and $\mathcal{C}(K_2, E_2)$ are not isomorphic if $ht(K_1)$ is substantially different from $ht(K_2)$.