Ideal structure and factorization properties of the regular kernel operators

We consider the structure of the lattice of (order and algebra) ideals of the band of regular kernel operators on $$L^p$$ L p -spaces. We show, in particular, that for any $$L^p(\mu )$$ L p ( μ ) space, with $$\mu $$ μ $$\sigma $$ σ -finite and $$1<p<\infty $$ 1 < p < ∞ , the norm-closure of the ideal of finite-rank operators on $$L^p(\mu )$$ L p ( μ ) , is the only non-trivial proper closed (order and algebra) ideal of this band. Key to our results in the $$L^p$$ L p setting is the fact that every regular kernel operator on an $$L^p(\mu )$$ L p ( μ ) space ($$\mu $$ μ and p as before) factors with regular factors through $$\ell _p$$ ℓ p . We show that a similar but weaker factorization property, where $$\ell _p$$ ℓ p is replaced by some reflexive purely atomic Banach lattice, characterizes the regular kernel operators from a reflexive Banach lattice with weak order unit to a KB-space with weak order unit.