Operator system quotients of matrix algebras and their tensor products

An operator system modulo the kernel of a completely positive linear map of the operator system gives rise to an operator system quotient. In this paper, operator system quotients and quotient maps of certain matrix algebras are considered. Some applications to operator algebra theory are given, including a new proof of Kirchberg's theorem on the tensor product of B(H) with the group C*-algebra of a countable free group. We also show that an affirmative solution to the Connes Embedding Problem is implied by various matrix-theoretic problems, and we give a new characterisation of unital C*-algebras that have the weak expectation property.