Characterizations of derivations on triangular rings: additive maps derivable at idempotents (Q1030771)

Let \(\mathcal A\) and \(\mathcal B\) be unital rings with units \(1_{\!A}\) and \(1_{\!B}\), respectively, and let \(\mathcal M\) be an \(({\mathcal A},{\mathcal B})\)-bimodule which is faithful both as a left \(\mathcal A\)-module and as a right \(\mathcal B\)-module. The main result is the classification of additive maps \(\delta\) on a triangular ring \({\mathcal T}=\left[\begin{smallmatrix} {\mathcal A}&{\mathcal M}\\ 0&{\mathcal B}\end{smallmatrix}\right]\), which are derivable at the idempotent \(P\in\{0,\,(1_{\!A}\oplus 0),\,(0\oplus 1_{\!B}),\,1=(1_{\!A}\oplus 1_{\!B})\}\) in the sense that \(AB=P\) implies \(\delta(AB)=\delta(A)B+A\delta(B)\) for \(A,B\in{\mathcal T}\). In particular, the following is shown under some mild constraints on the rings \(\mathcal A\) and \(\mathcal B\): (i) if \(\delta\) is derivable at \(P=0\) and \(\delta(1)\) is central in \({\mathcal T}\), then \(\delta\) is a sum of a derivation and a central multiple of identity map, (ii) if \(\delta\) is derivable at \(P=(1_{\!A}\oplus 0)\), or at \(P=(0\oplus 1_{\!B})\), or at \(P=1\), then it is a derivation. The results are immediately applicable to nest algebras on a complex Banach space, where a nest contains at least one nontrivial complemented subspace, and to nest algebras on a factor von~Neumann algebra.