Notes on extremality of the Choi map

Abstract

It is widely believed that the Choi map generates an extremal ray in the cone $\mathcal P(M_3)$ of all positive linear maps between $C^*$-algebra $M_3$ of all $n\times n$ matrices over the complex field. But the only proven fact is that the Choi map generates the extremal ray in the cone of all positive linear map preserving all real symmetric $3\times 3$ matrices. In this note, we show that the Choi map is indeed extremal in the cone $\mathcal P(M_3)$. We also clarify some misclaims about the correspondence between positive semi-definite biquadratic real forms and postive linear maps, and discuss possible positive linear maps which coincide with the Choi map on symmetric matrices.