On an isomorphic Banach-Mazur rotation problem and maximal norms in Banach spaces

We prove that the spaces $\ell_p$, $1<p<\infty, p\ne 2$, and all infinite-dimensional subspaces of their quotient spaces do not admit equivalent almost transitive renormings. This is a step towards the solution of the Banach-Mazur rotation problem, which asks whether a separable Banach space with a transitive norm has to be isometric or isomorphic to a Hilbert space. We obtain this as a consequence of a new property of almost transitive spaces with a Schauder basis, namely we prove that in such spaces the unit vector basis of $\ell_2^2$ belongs to the two-dimensional asymptotic structure and we obtain some information about the asymptotic structure in higher dimensions. Further, we prove that the spaces $\ell_p$, $1<p<\infty$, $p\ne 2$, have continuum different renormings with 1-unconditional bases each with a different maximal isometry group, and that every symmetric space other than $\ell_2$ has at least a countable number of such renormings. On the other hand we show that the spaces $\ell_p$, $1<p<\infty$, $p\ne 2$, have continuum different renormings each with an isometry group which is not contained in any maximal bounded subgroup of the group of isomorphisms of $\ell_p$.