Spectral order isomorphisms and AW*-factors

Abstract

The paper deals with spectral order isomorphisms in the framework of AW*-algebras. We establish that every spectral order isomorphism between sets of all self-adjoint operators (or between sets of all effects, or between sets of all positive operators) in AW*-factors of Type I has a canonical form induced by a continuous function calculus and an isomorphism between projection lattices. In particular, this solves an open question about spectral order automorphisms of the set of all (bounded) self-adjoint operators on an infinite-dimensional Hilbert space. We also discuss spectral order isomorphisms preserving, in addition, orthogonality in both directions.