Linear maps preserving M-P inverses of matrices between matrix spaces over fields (Q949277)

This paper is mainly dedicated to obtaining a characterization of linear maps preserving Moore-Penrose (M-P) inverses of matrices between matrix spaces with different dimensions. Let \(F\) be a field of characteristic not 2, and let \(n\) and \(m\) be two positive integers with \(n\geq 2\). Denote by \(M_n(F)\) and \(S_n(F)\) the space of \(n\times n\) full matrices and the space of symmetric \(n\times n\) matrices over \(F\), respectively. Let \(\sigma\) be an involutorial automorphism on \(F\). Denote by \(A^T\) the transpose of \(A\in M_n(F)\) and set \(A^*=(A^\sigma)^T\). Recall that the M-P inverse \(A^+\) of a matrix \(A\in M_n(F)\) is the unique solution \(X\) (if it exists) of the equations \[ AXA=A, \quad XAX=X,\quad (AX)^*=AX,\quad (XA)^*=XA. \] Let \(V\) be a subspace of \(M_n(F)\) and let \(W\) be a subspace of \(M_m(F)\). A linear map \(f: V \to W\) preserves M-P inverses of matrices if \(f(A)^+\) exists and \(f(A)^+=f(A^+)\) whenever \(A\in V\) has a M-P inverse \(A^+\). Notice that the forms of linear/additive maps preserving M-P inverses of matrices have already been investigated in the literature of linear/additive preserver problems when the matrix spaces have the same dimension. Here the authors describe the explicit forms of all linear maps from \(V\) to \(W\) preserving M-P inverses of matrices when \((V, W)\) is either \((S_n(F), M_m(F))\), \((S_n(F), S_m(F))\) or \((M_n(F), M_m(F))\). Several technical lemmas are proved in order to get the main theorems of the article.