Orthogonality preserving property for pairs of operators on Hilbert \(C^*\)-modules (Q822772)

Let \(E,F\) be left Hilbert \(C^*\)-modules over a \(C^*\)-algebra \(A\), and let \(\langle\cdot,\cdot\rangle\) denote the inner product on \(E\) and \(F\). A linear map \(T:E\to F\) is \emph{local} if \(ax=0\) (\(a\in A\), \(x\in E\)) implies \(aT(x)=0\). A pair of maps \(T,S:E\to F\) is \emph{orthogonality preserving} if \(\langle x,y\rangle=0\) implies \(\langle T(x),S(y)\rangle=0\). A \(C^*\)-algebra of bounded operators on a Hilbert space is called \emph{standard} if it contains all compact operators. It is shown that if \(T,S:E\to F\) are non-zero local maps and if \(A\) is standard, then the pair \((T,S)\) is orthogonality preserving iff there exists \(\gamma\in\mathbb C\) such that \(\langle T(x),S(y)\rangle=\gamma\langle x,y\rangle\) for any \(x,y\in E\). A similar result is obtained for an arbitrary \(C^*\)-algebra \(A\) under the assumption that the Hilbert \(C^*\)-modules are full; in this case, \(\gamma\) is an element of the center of the multiplier algebra of \(A\).