The tracial numerical range of operators on a $2$-dimensional Krein space is investigated. Results in the vein of those obtained in the context of Hilbert spaces are obtained.

Let $H$ be a complex Hilbert space, and $\HH$ be the real linear space of bounded selfadjoint operators on $H$. We study linear maps $\phi\colon \HH \to \HH$ leaving invariant various properties such as invertibility, positive definiteness, numerical range, {\it etc}. The maps $\phi$ are not assumed {\it a priori\/} continuous. It is shown that under an appropriate surjective or injective assumption $\phi$ has the form $X \mapsto \xi TXT^*$ or $X \mapsto \xi TX^tT^*$, for a suitable invertible or unitary $T$ and $\xi\in\{1, -1\}$, where $X^t$ stands for the transpose of $X$ relative to some orthonormal basis. Examples are given to show that the surjective or injective assumption cannot be relaxed. The results are extended to complex linear maps on the algebra of bounded linear operators on $H$. Similar results are proved for the (real) linear space of (selfadjoint) operators of the form $\alpha I+K$, where $\alpha$ is a scalar and $K$ is compact.

Let $c = (c_1, \dots, c_n)$ be such that $c_1 \ge \cdots \ge c_n$. The $c$-numerical range of an $n \times n$ matrix $A$ is defined by $$ W_c(A) = \Bigl\{ \sum_{j=1}^n c_j (Ax_j,x_j) : \{x_1, \dots, x_n\} \text{ an orthonormal basis for } \IC^n \Bigr\}, $$ and the $c$-numerical radius of $A$ is defined by $r_c (A) = \max \{|z| : z \in W_c (A)\}$. We determine the structure of those linear operators $\phi$ on algebras of block triangular matrices, satisfying $$ W_c \bigl( \phi(A) \bigr) = W_c (A) \text{ for all } A \quad \text{or} \quad r_c \bigl( \phi(A) \bigr) = r_c (A) \text{ for all } A. $$

Suppose $m$ and $n$ are integers such that $1 \le m \le n$. For a subgroup $H$ of the symmetric group $S_m$ of degree $m$, consider the {\it generalized matrix function} on $m\times m$ matrices $B = (b_{ij})$ defined by $d^H(B) = \sum_{\sigma \in H} \prod_{j=1}^m b_{j\sigma(j)}$ and the {\it generalized numerical range} of an $n\times n$ complex matrix $A$ associated with $d^H$ defined by $$ \wmp(A) = \{d^H (X^*AX): X \text{ is } n \times m \text{ such that } X^*X = I_m\}. $$ It is known that $\wmp(A)$ is convex if $m = 1$ or if $m = n = 2$. We show that there exist normal matrices $A$ for which $\wmp(A)$ is not convex if $3 \le m \le n$. Moreover, for $m = 2 < n$, we prove that a normal matrix $A $ with eigenvalues lying on a straight line has convex $\wmp(A)$ if and only if $\nu A$ is Hermitian for some nonzero $\nu \in \IC$. These results extend those of Hu, Hurley and Tam, who studied the special case when $2 \le m \le 3 \le n$ and $H = S_m$.