Linear maps on the space of all bounded observables preserving maximal deviation. (Q1421850)

Let \(H\) be a complex Hilbert space and \({\mathcal B}_s(H)\) denote the Jordan algebra of all selfadjoint bounded linear operators on \(H\). Let \(A\in {\mathcal B}_s(H)\) and pick a unit vector \(x\in H\). The mean value \(m(A, x)\) and the variance \(\text{var}(A, x)\) of the observable \(A\) in the state represented by \(x\) is defined respectively as \[ m(A, x)=\langle Ax, x\rangle , \] \[ \text{var}(A, x)=\langle A^2x, x\rangle - \langle Ax, x\rangle ^2 . \] Clearly, the set of all mean values of an observable \(A\in {\mathcal B}_s(H)\) is equal to the numerical range of the operator \(A\) and the numerical radius of a self-adjoint operator \(A\) is equal to the operator norm \(A\). The quantity \(A_v=\sup _{x=1}\text{var} (A,x)^{\frac{1}{2}}\) is called the maximal deviation of the observable \(A\in {\mathcal B}_s(H)\). In this paper, the authors characterize all the bijective linear maps from \({\mathcal B}_s(H)\) onto itself which preserve the operator norm or the maximal deviation. Nonlinear versions of the corresponding results are also presented.