Extreme points, positive Grothendieck constants and tensor product norms

We study several interrelated problems arising from the interplay between extreme point theory, Grothendieck-type inequalities, and tensor product norms.

We develop a general framework for characterizing the extreme points of the set of positive contractions $\mathcal{A}_{X\to Y}$ between finite-dimensional Banach spaces, with explicit results for $X=\ell_1^n$, $Y=\ell_\infty^n$ and vice versa.

These characterizations are applied to evaluate several constants exactly.

We show that the positive Grothendieck constant $K_G^{+,\mathbb{R}}(3)$ equals $9/8$ and that the smallest constant $\rho^{+}(X)$ for which $\|A\|_\pi \leqslant \rho^{+}(X)\|A\|_\epsilon$ holds for all $A \geqslant 0$ equals $5/4$ when $X=\ell^3_\infty(\mathbb{R})$.

We also prove that $\rho^+(X)=1$ when $X=\ell_\infty^n(\mathbb{C})$ and $n\leqslant 3$.

Finally, we prove that $\rho^+(X) = 1$ for every 2-dimensional subspace $X$ of $\ell^3_\infty(\mathbb{C})$; since this is stronger than the 2-summing property, it recovers Proposition~4.4 of \cite{AFJS95}.