Decomposition of tracial positive maps and applications in quantum information

Abstract

Every positive multilinear map between $C^*$-algebras is separately weak$^*$-continuous. We show that the joint weak$^*$-continuity is equivalent to the joint weak$^*$-continuity of the multiplications of $C^*$-algebras under consideration. We study the behavior of general tracial positive maps on properly infinite von Neumann algebras and by applying the Aron--Berner extension of multilinear maps, we establish that under some mild conditions every tracial positive multilinear map between general $C^*$-algebras enjoys a decomposition $\Phi=\varphi_2 \circ \varphi_1$, in which $\varphi_1$ is a tracial positive linear map with the commutative range and $\varphi_2$ is a tracial completely positive map with the commutative domain. As an immediate consequence, tracial positive multilinear maps are completely positive. Furthermore, we prove that if the domain of a general tracial completely positive map $\Phi$ between $C^*$-algebra is a von Neumann algebra, then $\Phi$ has a similar decomposition. As an application, we investigate the generalized variance and covariance in quantum mechanics via arbitrary positive maps. Among others, an uncertainty relation inequality for commuting observables in a composite physical system is presented.