Hyperplanes of finite-dimensional normed spaces with the maximal relative projection constant

The \emph{relative projection constant} $\lambda(Y, X)$ of normed spaces $Y \subset X$ is defined as $\lambda(Y, X) = \inf \{ ||P|| : P \in \mathcal{P}(X, Y) \}$, where $\mathcal{P}(X, Y)$ denotes the set of all continuous projections from $X$ onto $Y$. By the well-known result of Bohnenblust for every $n$-dimensional normed space $X$ and its subspace $Y$ of codimension $1$ the inequality $\lambda(Y, X) \leq 2 - \frac{2}{n}$ holds. The main goal of the paper is to study the equality case in the theorem of Bohnenblust. We establish an equivalent condition for the equality $\lambda(Y, X) = 2 - \frac{2}{n}$ and present several applications. We prove that every three-dimensional space has a subspace with the projection constant less than $\frac{4}{3} - 0.0007$. This gives a non-trivial upper bound in the problem posed by Bosznay and Garay. In the general case, we give an upper bound for the number of $(n-1)$-dimensional subspaces with the maximal relative projection constant in terms of the facets of the unit ball of $X$. As a consequence, every $n$-dimensional normed space $X$ has an $(n-1)$-dimensional subspace $Y$ with $\lambda(Y, X) < 2-\frac{2}{n}$. This contrasts with the seperable case in which it is possible that every hyperplane has a maximal possible projection constant.