Lie triple derivations of nest algebras (Q2496627)

Let \(B(H)\) denote the \(C^*\)-algebra of all bounded linear operators on a given complex separable Hilbert space \(H\). A nest in \(B(H)\) is a totally ordered family of orthogonal projections in \(B(H)\) which is closed with respect to the strong operator topology and that includes the trivial projections. The nest algebra associated to \(\mathcal{N}\) is given by \(A=\{T\in B(H)\mid (I-P)TP=0\;\forall P\in\mathcal{N}\}\). A Lie triple derivation of that algebra is a linear map \(D : A\rightarrow A\) such that \(D([[a,b],c])=[[D(a),b],c]+[[a,D(b)],c]+[[a,b],D(c)]\) for all \(a,b,c\in A\), where \([\cdot,\cdot]\) stands for the commutator. In the paper under review, it is shown that such a map is necessarily of the form \(D(a)=[a,b]+\tau(a)I\), \(a\in A\), for some \(b\in A\) and some linear functional \(\tau\) on \(A\) with the property that \(\tau([[A,A],A])=\{0\}\).