On a problem of Johnson and Wolfe

Abstract

In 1979, Johnson and Wolfe proved that norm-attaining operators are dense in $L(C(K),C(S))$ when $K$ and $S$ are compact Hausdorff spaces in the real setting. The corresponding complex case has remained open since then, mainly because the real proof relies on order and sign-decomposition arguments that are no longer available for complex measures. In this paper, we settle the complex case. We prove that, for arbitrary compact Hausdorff spaces $K$ and $S$, the set of norm-attaining operators from the complex space $C(K)$ into the complex space $C(S)$ endowed with the supremum norm is dense in $L(C(K),C(S))$. The proof replaces the real order-theoretic mechanism by a measure-theoretic phase-correction argument, based on polar decompositions, unimodular approximation, and a semicontinuity principle for weighted total variation. This yields a complex defect-reduction procedure which recovers the Johnson-Wolfe density theorem in full generality for complex $C(K)$-spaces.