Nonlinear preservers involving quadratic operators (Q2052774)

Given a Hilbert space \(H\) and two complex numbers \(a,b\) (\(a\neq b\)), a bounded linear operator \(T\) acting in \(H\) is said to be \(\{a,b\}\)-quadratic if \((T-a)(T-b)=0\). The aim of the paper is the characterization of all surjective maps \(\Phi\), acting on the algebra of all bounded linear operators on \(H\), such that the operator \(S-\lambda T\) is \(\{a,b\}\)-quadratic if and only if the operator \(\Phi(S)-\lambda \Phi(T)\) is \(\{a,b\}\)-quadratic. Such a map \(\Phi\) is assumed neither additive nor continuous. In fact, the proof of the authors shows that, preserving the stated property concerning the quadratic operators, the map \(\Phi\) must be continuous and invertible. More precisely, one must have either \(\Phi(T)=cATA^{-1}\) or \(\Phi(T)=cAT^{\text{ tr}}A^{-1}\) for all operators \(T\), where \(c=\pm1\), \(A\) is some invertible operator, and \(T^{\text{ tr}}\) is the transpose of \(T\) with respect to an orthonormal basis of \(H\).