In this work we investigate special aspects of positivity preservers and especially diagonal positivity preservers, i.e., linear maps $T:\mathbb{ R}[x_1,\dots,x_n]\to\mathbb{ R}[x_1,\dots,x_n]$ such that $Tx^\alpha = t_\alpha x^\alpha$ holds for all $\alpha\in\mathbb{ N}_0^n$ with $t_\alpha\in\mathbb{ R}$ and $Tp\geq 0$ on $\mathbb{ R}^n$ for all $p\in\mathbb{ R}[x_1,\dots,x_n]$ with $p\geq 0$ on $\mathbb{ R}^n$. We discuss representations of $T$, give characterizations of diagonal positivity preservers, and compare these to previous (partial) results in the literature. On the side we get a full characterization of linear maps preserving moment sequences and a new proof of Schur's product formula. The tool of diagonal positivity preservers simplifies several other existing proofs in the literature. We give a full characterization of generators $A$ of diagonal positivity preservers, i.e., $e^{ tA}$ is a diagonal positivity preserver for all $t\geq 0$. We give the connection of these generators to infinitely divisible moment sequences.
Categories: math.FA math.AG