Maps on Grassmann spaces preserving the minimal principal angle

Abstract

Let n be a positive integer and H a Hilbert space. The description of the general form of bijective maps on the set of n-dimensional subspaces of H preserving the maximal principal angle has been obtained recently. This is a generalization of Wigner’s unitary-antiunitary theorem. In this paper we will obtain another extension of Wigner’s theorem in which the maximal principal angle is replaced by the minimal one. Moreover, in this case we do not need the bijectivity assumption.