A note on similarity preserving linear maps on matrices (Q686381)

Consider the vector space \(M_ n(F)\) of all \(n\times n\) matrices over the field \(F\). A linear map \(T\) on this space is similarity preserving if \(T(A)\) is similar to \(T(B)\) whenever \(A\) is similar to \(B\). This short article gives a simple characterization of all similarity preserving operators on \(M_ n(F)\) in the case where \(F\) is an infinite field with char \(F=0\) or when char \(F\) does not divide \(n\). The result generalizes a theorem of \textit{F. Hiai} [Linear Algebra Appl. 97, 127-139 (1987; Zbl 0635.15002)] and the proof is based on a theorem of \textit{P. Botta}, \textit{S. Pierce} and \textit{W. Watkins} [Pac. J. Math. 104, 39-46 (1983; Zbl 0446.15002)].