We prove a necessary and sufficient condition for embeddability of an operator system into ${\mathcal{O}}_{2}$. Using Kirchberg’s theorems on a tensor product of ${\mathcal{O}}_{2}$ and ${\mathcal{O}}_{\infty }$, we establish results on their operator system counterparts ${\mathcal{S}}_{2}$ and ${\mathcal{S}}_{\infty }$. Applications of the results, including some examples describing $C^{\ast }$-envelopes of operator systems, are also discussed.

We prove that an operator system is (min, ess)-nuclear if its $C^{\ast }$ -envelope is nuclear. This allows us to deduce that an operator system associated to a generating set of a countable discrete group by Farenick et al. [‘Operator systems from discrete groups’, Comm. Math. Phys.329(1) (2014), 207–238] is (min, ess)-nuclear if and only if the group is amenable. We also make a detailed comparison between ess and other operator system tensor products and show that an operator system associated to a minimal generating set of a finitely generated discrete group (respectively, a finite graph) is (min, max)-nuclear if and only if the group is of order less than or equal to three (respectively, every component of the graph is complete).

For any pair M, N of von Neumann algebras such that the algebraic tensor product M ⊗ N admits more than one C*-norm, the cardinal of the set of C*-norms is at least 2ℵ0. Moreover, there is a family with cardinality 2ℵ0 of injective tensor product functors for C*-algebras in Kirchberg's sense. Let ${\mathbb B}$=∏nMn. We also show that, for any non-nuclear von Neumann algebra M⊂ ${\mathbb B}$(ℓ2), the set of C*-norms on ${\mathbb B}$ ⊗ M has cardinality equal to 22ℵ0.

We define the quotient and complete NUOS-quotient map (NUOS stands for nonunital operator system) in the category of nonunital operator systems. We prove that the greatest reduced tensor product max0 is projective in some sense. Moreover, we define a pseudo unit in a nonunital operator system and give some necessary and sufficient conditions under which a nonunital operator system has an operator system structure.

We prove that, for operator spaces V and W, the operator space V** ⊗hW** can be completely isometrically embedded into (V ⊗hW)**, ⊗h being the Haagerup tensor product. We also show that, for exact operator spaces V and W, a jointly completely bounded bilinear form on V × W can be extended uniquely to a separately w*-continuous jointly completely bounded bilinear form on V× W**. This paves the way to obtaining a canonical embedding of into with a continuous inverse, where is the operator space projective tensor product. Further, for C*-algebras A and B, we study the (closed) ideal structure of which, in particular, determines the lattice of closed ideals of completely.