On the small scale nonlinear theory of operator spaces

Abstract

We initiate the study of the small scale geometry of operator spaces. The authors have previously shown that a map between operator spaces which is completely coarse (that is, the sequence of its amplifications is equi-coarse) must be $\mathbb R$-linear. We obtain a generalization of the aforementioned result to completely coarse maps defined on the unit ball of an operator space. By relaxing the condition to a small scale one, we prove that there are many non-linear examples of maps which are completely Lipshitz in small scale. We define a geometric parameter for homogeneous Hilbertian operator spaces which imposes restrictions on the existence of such maps.