On the image,characterization, and automatic continuity of $$\varvec{(\sigma }, \varvec{\tau }$$ )-derivations

The first main theorem of this paper asserts that any \((\sigma , \tau )\)-derivation d, under certain conditions, either is a \(\sigma \)-derivation or is a scalar multiple of (\(\sigma - \tau \)), i.e. \(d = \lambda (\sigma - \tau )\) for some \(\lambda \in \mathbb {C} \backslash \{0\}\). By using this characterization, we achieve a result concerning the automatic continuity of \((\sigma , \tau \))-derivations on Banach algebras which reads as follows. Let \(\mathcal {A}\) be a unital, commutative, semi-simple Banach algebra, and let \(\sigma , \tau : \mathcal {A} \rightarrow \mathcal {A}\) be two distinct endomorphisms such that \(\varphi \sigma (\mathbf e )\) and \(\varphi \tau (\mathbf e )\) are non-zero complex numbers for all \(\varphi \in \Phi _\mathcal {A}\). If \(d : \mathcal {A} \rightarrow \mathcal {A}\) is a \((\sigma , \tau )\)-derivation such that \(\varphi d\) is a non-zero linear functional for every \(\varphi \in \Phi _\mathcal {A}\), then d is automatically continuous. As another objective of this research, we prove that if \(\mathfrak {M}\) is a commutative von Neumann algebra and \(\sigma :\mathfrak {M} \rightarrow \mathfrak {M}\) is an endomorphism, then every Jordan \(\sigma \)-derivation \(d:\mathfrak {M} \rightarrow \mathfrak {M}\) is identically zero.