We characterize surjective linear maps on ${\cal B}(X)$ that are spectrally bounded and spectrally bounded below.

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 $$ W_c \bigl( \phi(A) \bigr) = W_c (A) \text{ for all } A \quad \text{or} \quad r_c \bigl( \phi(A) \bigr) = r_c (A) \text{ for all } A. $$

The aim of this paper is to characterize those linear maps from a von~Neumann factor $\A$ into itself which preserve the extreme points of the unit ball of $\A$. For example, we show that if $\A$ is infinite, then every such linear preserver can be written as a fixed unitary operator times either a unital $\ast$-homomorphism or a unital $\ast$-antihomomorphism.