The ball fixed point property in spaces of continuous functions

Abstract: A Banach space $X$ has the ball fixed point property (BFPP) if for every closed ball $B$ and for every nonexpansive mapping $T\colon B\to B$, there is a fixed point. We study the BFPP for $C(K)$-spaces. Our goal is to determine topological properties over $K$ that may determine the failure or fulfillment of the BFPP for the space of continuous functions $C(K)$. We prove that the class of compact spaces $K$ for which the BFPP holds lies between the class of extremally disconnected compact spaces and the class of compact $F$-spaces. We give a family of examples of $F$-spaces $K$ for which the BFPP fails. As a result, we prove that for every cardinal $\kappa$, $\kappa$-order completeness or $\kappa$-hyperconvexity of $C(K)$ are not enough for the BFPP and we obtain that $\ell_\infty/c_0 = C(\mathbb{N}^*)$ fails BFPP under the Continuum Hypothesis. The space $C([0,+\infty)^*)$ is also analyzed. It is left as an open problem whether all compact spaces for which the BFPP holds are in fact the extremally disconnected compact sets.