Contractive linear preservers of absolutely compatible pairs between C*-algebras

Abstract: Let $a$ and $b$ be elements in the closed ball of a unital C$^*$-algebra $A$ (if $A$ is not unital we consider its natural unitization). We shall say that $a$ and $b$ are domain (respectively, range) absolutely compatible ($a\triangle_d b$, respectively, $a\triangle_r b$, in short) if $\Big| |a| -|b| \Big| + \Big| 1-|a|-|b| \Big| =1$ (resp., $\Big| |a^*| -|b^*| \Big| + \Big| 1-|a^|-|b^| \Big| =1$), where $|a|^2= a^* a$. We shall say that $a$ and $b$ are absolutely compatible ($a\triangle b$ in short) if they are both range and domain absolutely compatible. In general, $a\triangle_d b$ (respectively, $a\triangle_r b$ and $a\triangle b$) is strictly weaker than $ab^*=0 $ (respectively, $a^* b =0$ and $a\perp b$). Let $T: A\to B$ be a contractive linear mapping between C$^*$-algebras. We prove that if $T$ preserves domain absolutely compatible elements (i.e., $a\triangle_d b\Rightarrow T(a)\triangle_d T(b)$) then $T$ is a triple homomorphism. A similar statement is proved when $T$ preserves range absolutely compatible elements. It is finally shown that $T$ is a triple homomorphism if, and only if, $T$ preserves absolutely compatible elements.