Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 November 2018
Let l < p < ∞, p ≠ 2 and α > 0. In what follows sp(α) will denote the space of all real or complex sequences for which
(1.1)
In this paper we show that the spaces sp(α) are Banach spaces under the natural norm and in fact share many properties that the usual lp spaces have. Our main results give characterizations of the surjective isometries of sp(α). These turn out to be quite different than the results for lp. For example, we show that for α ≠ 1, an operator T is a surjective isometry if and only if T is a modulus one multiple of the identity. The methods used are valid for both real and complex scalars. They involve the use of a disjoint support condition together with a property of semi inner products. In the complex case the information on isometries allows us to give complete descriptions of the Hermitian operators as well as the adjoint abelian operators.