Numerical radius and zero pattern of matrices (Q2382745)

For an \(n\)-by-\(n\) complex matrix \(A\), let \(r\) be the maximum size of its principal submatrices with no off-diagonal zero entries and let \[ w(A)=\max\{| \langle Ax,x\rangle|:x\text{ unit vector in }\mathbb{C}^n\} \] be its numerical radius. The main result of this paper says that if \(A\) has zero main diagonal, then \(w(A)^2 \leq(1-(1/r)-(1/(2n))\|A\|^2\), where \(\|A\|\) denotes the Frobenius norm of \(A\). In case \(A\) is Hermitian (with zero main diagonal), then there holds the sharp inequality \[ w(A)^2\leq(1-(1/r))\|A\|^2. \] For \(r\geq 2\), it is also completely determined when this latter inequality becomes an equality. It is noted that the Hermitian inequality implies a theorem of Turan in extremal graph theory.