In Volume 1 of "Classical Banach Spaces" Lindenstrauss and Tzafriri note that all surjective linear isometries on $\ell\_\infty$ are of the from $(a\_i) \mapsto (\varepsilon\_i a\_{\pi(i)})$ where $\pi$ is a permutation of $\mathbb{N}$ and $\varepsilon\_i \in\{\pm 1\}$. They mention that the proof is a consequence of the more general result on isometries on $C(K)$ spaces that it will appear in Volume 3 (which does not exist). Does anyone know a reference for the proof of this fact?



Surjective linear isometries on $\ell_\infty(\mathbb{N})$
I don't know a reference (other users will probably provide one). Here's a (quite immediate) proof anyway. I'll replace $\mathbf{N}$ with an arbitrary set $X$ since the integers play no role.


**Fact** The extremal points of the closed 1-ball of $\ell^\infty(X)$ precisely consists of the maps $X\to\{-1,1\}$.


Proof: Given $f,g,u:X\to [-1,1]$ if $u\in [f,g]$ and for some $x\in X$, $u(x)\in\{-1,1\}$, then we see that $f(x)=g(x)=u(x)$. Hence, all $u:X\to\{-1,1\}$ are extremal. Conversely, let $u$ not be of this form. So $-1<u(y)<1$ for some $y$. For a scalar $\varepsilon$, define $u\_\pm(y)=u(y)\pm\varepsilon$ and $u\_\pm(x)=u(x)$ for $x\neq y$. Then $u=\frac12(u\_++u\_-)$ and for $\varepsilon>0$ small enough, both $u\_\pm$ belong to the closed 1-ball. So $u$ is not extremal.


**Corollary:** every bijective self-isometry of $\ell^\infty$ has the required form (call this "standard", and "diagonal-standard" when the permutation is trivial).


Proof: Write $W\_A=1\_A-1\_{A^c}$. Then, by the fact, the isometry group acts on the power set $2^X$ by $g\cdot W\_A=W\_{gA}$.


Given an isometry, after composing with a diagonal-standard isometry, we can suppose that $f(1\_X)=1\_X$, i.e., $f\in G$, where $G$ is the stabilizer of $1\_X$. We have to show that $G$ is reduced to the permutation group.


Now for $A,B,C\subseteq X$, write $F(A,B,C)$ if $W\_A+W\_B-W\_C=1\_X$; since $G$ acts linearly and fixes $1\_X$, this ternary relation is preserved by $G$. Also it is easy to check that $F(A,B,C)$ holds if and only if $C=A\cap B$. Hence, we see that $G$ (acting on $2^X$ by $f(W\_A)=W\_{gA})$ preserves the intersection operation. In particular, it preserves the ordering of $2^X$, and hence is an automorphism of the Boolean algebra $2^X$. Such an automorphism is necessarily induced by a permutation.


Now for $f\in G$, composing with a permutation (which is standard), we can suppose that $f$ pointwise fixes all maps $X\to\{-1,1\}$. By a $\mathbf{Q}$-linear combination, it therefore preserves all characteristic functions (=maps $X\to\{0,1\}$), and in turn, it therefore preserves all simple functions (= maps $X\to\mathbf{R}$ with finite image). Since these form a dense subspace of $\ell^\infty(X)$, the resulting isometry is the identity, which means that the original isometry is standard.




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Note: an analogous result also holds for all $p\in [1,\infty]\smallsetminus\{2\}$. The case $1$ is similarly easy, but in the other cases this easy argument doesn't work since then the all sphere consists of extremal points.




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 As pointed out by @GiorgioMetafune the initial argument was incorrect and some combinatorial argument was needed.
