On the upper bound of the maximal absolute projection constant providing the simple proof of Grunbaum conjecture

Abstract

Let $\lambda_\mathbb{K}(m)$ denote the maximal absolute projection constant over the subspaces of dimension $m$. Apart from the trivial case for $m=1$, the only known value of $\lambda_\mathbb{K}(m)$ is for $m=2$ and $\mathbb{K}=\mathbb{R}.$ In 1960, B.Grunbaum conjectured that $\lambda_\mathbb{R}(2)=\frac{4}{3}$ and in 2010, B. Chalmers and G. Lewicki proved it. In 2019, G. Basso delivered the alternative proof of this conjecture. Both proofs are quite complicated, and there was a strong belief that providing an exact value for $\lambda_\mathbb{K}(m)$ in other cases will be a tough task. In our paper, we present an upper bound of the value $\lambda_\mathbb{K}(m)$, which becomes an exact value for the numerous cases. The crucial will be combining some results from the articles [B. Bukh, C. Cox, Nearly orthogonal vectors and small antipodal spherical codes, Isr. J. Math. 238, 359-388 (2020)] and [G. Basso, Computation of maximal projection constants, J. Funct. Anal. 277/10 (2019), 3560-3585.], for which simplified proofs will be given