Variational analysis of the Crouzeix ratio (Q2364491)

Denote by \(\mathcal{M}^n\) the space of \(n\times n\) complex matrices, by \(\mathcal{P}_m\) the space of polynomials with complex coefficients of degree \(\leq m\), by \(\|\,\,.\,\,\|\) the vector or matrix \(2\)-norm, and for \(A\in \mathcal{M}^n\), by \(W(A)\) the numerical range of the matrix \(A\), where \[ W(A)=\{v^*Av\,:\,v\in\mathbb{C}^n,\,\,\|v\|=1\}, \] and \(v^*\) denotes the complex conjugate transpose of \(v\). Additionally set \[ \|p\|_{W(A)} = \max_{x\in W(A)} |p(x)|=\max_{\|v\|=1}|p(v^*Av)|, \] so that \(\|p\|_{W(A)}\) defines a norm on the polynomial \(p\) over the field of values of the matrix \(A\). In this paper the authors are primarily concerned with \textit{M. Crouzeix}'s 2004 conjecture [Integral Equations Oper. Theory 48, No. 4, 461--477 (2004; Zbl 1069.47004)], which aims to bound the spectral norm of the polynomial of a matrix by the norm of the polynomial on the field of values of the matrix in a remarkably simple way. The conjecture states that for \(n,m\in\mathbb{N}\), and for \(A\in \mathcal{M}^n\), \(p\in\mathcal{P}_m\), the inequality \(\|p(A)\|_2 \leq 2\|p\|_{W(A)}\) holds. The Crouzeix ratio is then defined to be \[ \frac{\|p\|_{W(A)}}{\|p(A)\|_2}, \] and is bounded below by \(1/2\) if the conjecture is true. In [J. Funct. Anal. 244, No. 2, 668--690 (2007; Zbl 1116.47004)], \textit{M. Crouzeix} showed that this ratio is bounded below by \(1/11.08\), and today this problem is still open.