An approximation problem in the space of bounded operators

Abstract: For Banach spaces $X,Y,$ we consider a distance problem in the space of bounded linear operators $\mathcal{L}(X,Y).$ Motivated by a paper \cite{RAO21}, we obtain sufficient conditions so that for a compact operator $T\in\mathcal{L}(X,Y)$ and a closed subspace $Z\subset Y,$ the following equation holds, which relates global approximation with local approximation: [d(T,\mathcal{L}(X,Z))=\sup{d(Tx,Z):x\in X,|x|=1}.] In some cases, we show that the supremum is attained at an extreme point of the corresponding unit ball. Furthermore, we obtain some situations when the following equivalence holds: $$T\perp_B \mathcal{L}(X,Z)\Leftrightarrow T^{}x_0^{}\perp_B Z^{\perp\perp}\Leftrightarrow T^{}\perp_B\mathcal{L}(X^{},Z^{\perp\perp}),$$ for some $x_0^{**}\in X^{**}$ satisfying $|T^{}x_0^{}|=|T^{}||x_0^{}|,$ where $Z^\perp$ is the annihilator of $Z.$ One such situation is when $Z$ is an $L^1-$predual space and an $M-$ideal in $Y$ and $T$ is a multi-smooth operator of finite order. Another such situation is when $X$ is an abstract $L_1-$space and $T$ is a multi-smooth operator of finite order. Finally, as a consequence of the results, we obtain a sufficient condition for proximinality of a subspace $Z$ in $Y.$