Linear dependence of operators characterized by trace functionals (Q609510)

Let \(H\) be a complex Hilbert space of dimension at least \(2\) and let \(B(H)\) be the algebra of all bounded linear operators on \(H\). It is an important problem to study conditions under which a given set of operators \(\Gamma \subset B(H)\) is linearly dependent. One of the approaches to this problem is through local linear dependence. A set of operators \(\Gamma\) is called locally linearly dependent if \(\{ Ax: A\in \Gamma\}\) is linearly dependent for every \(x\in H\). A very famous result in this direction is a theorem proved by Kaplansky which says that, for a given operator \(A\in B(H)\), the local linear dependence of \(\{ A^{n}: n=0,1,2,\dots\}\) implies linear dependence. Another approach to the linear dependence problem is to investigate whether a set of functions determines the linear dependence of a given set of operators. For instance, it was proven recently by \textit{B. Kuzma}, \textit{G. Lešnjak}, \textit{C.-K. Li}, \textit{T. Petek} and \textit{L. Rodman} [Operator Theory: Advances and Applications 202, 411--434 (2010; Zbl 1206.47005)] that \(B=\nu A\) or \(B=\nu A^{*}\), for some \(\nu \in \mathbb C\) of modulus one, if \(A, B \in B(H)\) satisfy \(|\langle Ax,x\rangle=|\langle Bx,x\rangle|\) for every \(x\in H\). In the paper under review, this second approach is used for showing linear dependence of two operators by trace functionals. A straightforward consequence of the main theorem is the following statement. Let \(A, B \in B(H)\) and let \(C\in B(H)\) be a trace-class operator (which is not a scalar multiple of the identity operator if \(H\) is finite-dimensional). If \(|\text{tr}(AUCU^{*})|=|\text{tr}(BUCU^{*})|\) for all unitary operators \(U\in B(H)\), then \(B=\mu I+\nu A\) or \(B=\mu I+\nu A^{*}\), where \(\mu, \nu \in\mathbb C\) and \(|\nu|=1\).