Maps on classes of Hilbert space operators preserving measure of commutativity (Q744126)

Let \(\mathcal{H}\) denote a complex and at least two-dimensional Hilbert space and \(\mathcal{B(H)}\) the set of all bounded linear operators on \(\mathcal{H}\). The symbols \(\mathcal{B}_{s}\mathcal{(H)}\), \(\mathcal{P}_{1} \mathcal{(H)}\), \(\mathcal{U(H)}\), and \(\mathcal{S(H)}\) will denote the set of all self-adjoint operators, self-adjoint idempotent rank-one operators, unitary operators, and density operators in \(\mathcal{B(H)}\), respectively. We note that a positive operator \(A\in B(H)\) is said to be a density operator if Tr \(A=1\), where Tr stands for the trace. The authors first describe those (real-)linear transformations on \(\mathcal{B}_{s}\mathcal{(H)}\) for finite-dimensional spaces \(\mathcal{H}\) which are not necessarily bijective and preserve a given unitarily invariant norm of the commutator. They show that, for every such map \(\phi :\) \(\mathcal{B}_{s} \mathcal{(H)\rightarrow B}_{s}\mathcal{(H)}\), there exists either a unitary or an antiunitary operator \(U\) on \(\mathcal{H}\) and a linear functional \(f: \mathcal{B}_{s}\mathcal{(H)}\rightarrow \mathbb{R}\) such that \[ \phi (A)=UAU^{\ast }+f(A)I\quad (A\in \mathcal{B}_{s}\mathcal{(H)}) \] or \[ \phi (A)=-UAU^{\ast }+f(A)I\quad (A\in \mathcal{B}_{s}\mathcal{(H)}). \] The proof of this theorem is much more complicated in the two-dimensional case since in higher dimensions the authors are able to use a well-known result of \textit{M. D. Choi} et al. [Linear Algebra Appl. 87, 227--241 (1987; Zbl 0615.15004)] describing linear maps \(\phi :\mathcal{B}_{s}\mathcal{(H)\rightarrow B}_{s}\mathcal{(H)}\), \(3\leq \dim \mathcal{H}<\infty \) that preserve commutativity. Next, the authors characterize those (not necessarily linear or bijective) maps on the set \(\mathcal{P}_{1}\mathcal{(H)}\), where \(\dim \) \(\mathcal{H}=2\), which again preserve a given unitarily invariant norm of the commutator. This result is then applied in order to obtain a description of such bijective preservers on \(\mathcal{U(H)}\), \(2\leq \dim \mathcal{H}\leq \aleph _{0}\), and on \(\mathcal{S(H)}\), \(2\leq \dim \mathcal{H}<\infty \). The paper has three sections. The authors give a statement of the results in the first section. Results are proved in the second section. Some remarks and open questions are presented in the last section. With the first of the above results, the authors give a partial answer to a question posed in [\textit{L. Molnár} and \textit{W. Timmermann}, Int. J. Theor. Phys. 50, No. 12, 3857--3863 (2011; Zbl 1243.81079)]; however, a general question in two dimensions remains. The authors also provide (see the second section) a higher dimensional version about a preserver problem concerning the set \(\mathcal{P}_{1}\mathcal{(H)}\), but they assume here that \(\phi :\mathcal{P}_{1}\mathcal{(H)\rightarrow P}_{1}\mathcal{(H)}\) is bijective. The problem of characterizing (not necessarily linear or bijective) maps on the set \(\mathcal{P}_{1}\mathcal{(H)}\), where \(\dim \) \(\mathcal{H>}2\), which preserve a given unitarily invariant norm of the commutator, remains open.