On a class of determinant preserving maps for finite von Neumann algebras (Q1748310)

Let \(\mathcal R\) be a von Neumann algebra with tracial state \(\tau \) (this is not unique when \(\mathcal R\) is not a factor, so a choice has to be made here). The Kadison-Fuglede determinant [\textit{B. Fuglede} and \textit{R. V. Kadison}, Ann. Math. (2) 55, 520--530 (1952; Zbl 0046.33604)] is defined on \(\mathrm{GL}(\mathcal R)\) (the group of invertible elements in \(\mathcal R\)) by \[ \Delta(A)=\exp(\tau(\log\, (A^*A)^{1/2})). \] The aim of the paper is to prove that, if \(\phi:\mathrm{GL}(\mathcal R)\to \mathrm{GL}(\mathcal R)\) is a bijection, the following statements are equivalent: {\parindent=0.7cm\begin{itemize}\item[(1)] \(\Delta(\phi(A)+\phi(B))=\Delta(\phi(I))\,\Delta(A+B)\) \item[(2)] there exists a \(\tau\)-preserving Jordan \(*\)-automorphism of \(\mathcal R\) and \(T\in\mathrm{GL}(\mathcal R)\) with \[ \phi(A)=TJ(A)T,\;\;A\in\mathrm{GL}(\mathcal R)^+. \] \end{itemize}} A Jordan homomorphism \(J:\mathcal R\to\mathcal R\) is a linear map such that \(J(A^2)=J(A)^2\) for all \(A\in \mathcal R\). A key step in the proof is the generalized Minkowski determinant inequality \[ \Delta(A+B)\geq \Delta(A)+\Delta(B),\;\;\;A,B\in\mathcal R^+. \] All of Section 3 is devoted to this result, while Section 4 contains the proof of the main theorem.