One-sided \(M\)-ideals and multipliers in operator spaces. I. (Q1858326)

It has long been known that the algebraic structure and the Banach space geometric structure of a \(C^*\)-algebra \(A\) are intimately related. For example, the closed two-sided ideals of \(A\) are exactly the \(M\)-ideals of \(A\). In this paper, the authors solve the problem of characterising the closed one-sided ideals in a similar way, however using the operator space geometry of~\(A\). Let \(X\) be an operator space, and consider the canonical operator space structure on the space of \((2\times 1)\)-matrices (= columns) \(C_2(X)=M_{2,1}(X)\). A projection \(P\) on \(X\) is a complete left \(M\)-projection if the mapping \[ X \to C_2(X), \qquad x \mapsto \left[ \begin{matrix} P(x) \\ x-P(x)\end{matrix} \right] \] is a complete isometry. (Working with rows instead of columns one arrives at the definition of a complete right \(M\)-projection.) Further, a closed subspace \(J\) of \(X\) is called a complete right \(M\)-ideal if \(J^{\bot\bot}\subset X^{**}\) is the range of a complete left \(M\)-projection. It turns out that the complete left \(M\)-projections of an operator space \(X\subset L(H)\) are just the mappings \(x\mapsto ex\) for some orthogonal projection \(e\) on \(H\) that leave \(X\) invariant, and in a \(C^*\)-algebra the right complete \(M\)-ideals are exactly the closed right ideals, hence the choice of the labels left or right. In addition, the complete \(M\)-ideals introduced in [\textit{E.G.~Effros, Z.-J.~Ruan}, Proc.\ Lond.\ Math.\ Soc., III.~Ser.\ 69, No. 1, 171--197 (1994; Zbl 0814.47053)] are shown to be those subspaces that are both left and complete right \(M\)-ideals. These notions have many properties in common with their Banach space ancestors; this is proved in Section~3. Indeed, the classical notions correspond to the new ones with reference to the MIN-structure. There is also a notion of complete right and left \(L\)-projections and \(L\)-summands for which the expected duality results are proved as well. In Section~4, the authors consider one-sided multiplier operators and their subspecies consisting of adjointable operators corresponding to the operators in the multiplier algebra Mult\((X)\) and the centraliser \(Z(X)\) of Banach space theory. Here they prove for a linear map \(\varphi: X\to X\) that there exists a complete isometry from \(X\) into \(L(H)\) and some \(b\in L(H)\) such that \(\varphi(x)=bx\) if and only if the map \[ C_2(X) \to C_2(X) , \qquad \left[ \begin{matrix} x \\ y\end{matrix} \right] \mapsto \left[ \begin{matrix}\varphi(x) \\ y\end{matrix} \right] \] is completely contractive. Some applications of the main results are presented in Section~5. Notably, the adjointable left complete multipliers of a dual operator space form a von Neumann algebra and any such operator is weak\(^*\) continuous, which leads to more automatic weak\(^*\) continuity results in the setting of operator bimodules. The final section of this very interesting paper deals with examples; in particular, the one-sided \(M\)-ideals of various Hilbertian operator spaces are calculated. Unlike in the classical theory, they need not be trivial here. Reviewer's remark: There is some overlap of this paper with an unpublished article by \textit{W.~Werner} [``Small \(K\)-groups for operator systems'']; see also his paper in [J. Funct.\ Anal.\ 206, No. 2, 356--378 (2004; Zbl 1064.46045)]. For further investigations along the lines of the present paper, see [\textit{D. P.~Blecher, R. R.~Smith} and \textit{V.~Zarikian}, J. Oper.\ Theory 51, No. 1, 181--200 (2004; Zbl 1064.46036)].