Multilinear maps on products of operator algebras

Let A₁,A₂,…,A_r be C∗-algebras with second duals A₁″,A₂″,…,A_r″, and let X be an arbitrary Banach space. Let be a bounded r-linear map, and denote by the Johnson-Kadison-Ringrose extension (i.e., the separately to continuous r-linear extension) of Γ. The problem of characterising those Γ for which Γ″ takes its values in X was solved by Villanueva when the algebras are all commutative. Because the Dunford-Pettis property fails for noncommutative C∗-algebras, the ‘obvious’ extension of Villanueva's characterisation does not give the correct condition. In this paper we solve this problem for general C∗-algebras. This result is then applied to obtaining a multilinear generalisation of the normal-singular decomposition of a bounded linear operator on a von Neumann algebra.