A note on decomposable maps on operator systems (Q2194518)

Let \(\mathcal{A}\) be a concrete unital \(C^*\)-algebra and \(\mathcal{S}\) be an operator system in \(\mathcal{A}\), that is, a unital self-adjoint subspace of \(\mathcal{A}\). The paper under review deals with decomposable maps from \(\mathcal{S}\) into the full matrix algebra \(M_n\). The transpose map on a Hilbert space \(\mathcal{H}\) associated to an orthonormal basis \(\mathcal{E}\) is the unique linear map \(t_\mathcal{E}: \mathcal{B}(\mathcal{H})\longrightarrow \mathcal{B}(\mathcal{H})\), determined by the identity \[ \langle t_\mathcal{E}(T)y,x\rangle = \langle Tx,y\rangle \quad (x,y\in\mathcal{E}). \] A linear map \(\psi :\mathcal{S}\longrightarrow M_n\) is co-completely positive if the composition \(t\circ\psi\) for a transpose map \(t\) on \(M_n\) is completely positive. In this article it is shown that a linear map \(\phi :\mathcal{S}\longrightarrow M_n\) is decomposable into a sum of a completely positive map \(\theta\) and a co-completely positive map \(\psi\) if and only if \(\mathcal{J}_n(\mathcal{S})\) is included in \(\overline{\mathcal{S}^+\otimes M_n^+}\), where \(t\) is the transpose map where \(t\circ\psi\) is completely positive and \(\mathcal{J}_n(\mathcal{S})\) is the set of all elements \(u\) of \(\mathcal{S}\otimes M_n\) for which both of \(u\) and its transpose \(t(u)\) are positive. There is another characterization of decomposable maps due to \textit{E. Størmer} [Math. Scand. 105, No.~2, 188--198 (2009; Zbl 1186.46064)] as follows: A linear map \(\psi :\mathcal{S}\longrightarrow M_n\) is decomposable if and only if the restriction of its associated dual functional \(S_\phi : M_n(\mathcal{S})\longrightarrow\mathbb{C}\) to \(\mathcal{J}_n(\mathcal{S})\) is non-negative. In this article, an alternate proof of Størmer's result is presented.