English

Classification of Jordan multiplicative maps on matrix algebras

Rings and Algebras 2025-11-26 v3

Abstract

Let Mn(F)M_n(\mathbb{F}) be the algebra of n×nn \times n matrices over a field F\mathbb{F} of characteristic not equal to 22. If n2n\ge 2, we show that an arbitrary map ϕ:Mn(F)Mn(F)\phi : M_n(\mathbb{F}) \to M_n(\mathbb{F}) is Jordan multiplicative, i.e.\ it satisfies the functional equation ϕ(XY+YX)=ϕ(X)ϕ(Y)+ϕ(Y)ϕ(X),for all X,YMn(F) \phi(XY+YX)=\phi(X)\phi(Y)+\phi(Y)\phi(X), \quad \text{for all } X,Y \in M_n(\mathbb{F}) if and only if one of the following holds: either ϕ\phi is constant, equal to P/2P/2 for some idempotent PMn(F)P \in M_n(\mathbb{F}), or there exists an invertible matrix TMn(F)T \in M_n(\mathbb{F}) and a ring monomorphism ω:FF\omega: \mathbb{F} \to \mathbb{F} such that ϕ(X)=Tω(X)T1 or ϕ(X)=Tω(X)tT1,for all XMn(F), \phi(X)=T\omega(X)T^{-1} \quad \text{ or } \quad \phi(X)=T\omega(X)^tT^{-1}, \quad \text{for all } X \in M_n(\mathbb{F}), where ω(X)\omega(X) denotes the matrix obtained by applying ω\omega entrywise to XX. In particular, any Jordan multiplicative map ϕ:Mn(F)Mn(F)\phi : M_n(\mathbb{F}) \to M_n(\mathbb{F}) with ϕ(0)=0\phi(0)=0 is automatically additive. The analogous characterization fails when F\mathbb{F} has characteristic 22.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2503.24094,
  title  = {Classification of Jordan multiplicative maps on matrix algebras},
  author = {Ilja Gogić and Mateo Tomašević},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2503.24094},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

14 pages, closely related to [arxiv.org/abs/2503.14116], to appear in Aequationes Math. In v3 we corrected a minor issue in the abstract and in the statement of Theorem 1.1: the constant term in the characterization should be $P/2$ for $\diamond$-preserving maps, and $P$ for $\circ$-preserving maps, where $P \in M_n(\mathbb{F})$ is an idempotent