Linear preservers and quantum information science

Abstract: Let $m,n\ge 2$ be positive integers, $M_m$ the set of $m\times m$ complex matrices and $M_n$ the set of $n\times n$ complex matrices. Regard $M_{mn}$ as the tensor space $M_m\otimes M_n$. Suppose $|\cdot|$ is the Ky Fan $k$-norm with $1 \le k \le mn$, or the Schatten $p$-norm with $1 \le p \le \infty$ ($p\ne 2$) on $M_{mn}$. It is shown that a linear map $\phi: M_{mn} \rightarrow M_{mn}$ satisfying $$|A\otimes B| = |\phi(A\otimes B)|$$ for all $A \in M_m$ and $B \in M_n$ if and only if there are unitary $U, V \in M_{mn}$ such that $\phi$ has the form $A\otimes B \mapsto U(\varphi_1(A) \otimes \varphi_2(B))V$, where $\varphi_i(X)$ is either the identity map $X \mapsto X$ or the transposition map $X \mapsto X^t$. The results are extended to tensor space $M_{n_1} \otimes ... \otimes M_{n_m}$ of higher level. The connection of the problem to quantum information science is mentioned.