A Minkowski type trace inequality and strong subadditivity of quantum entropy. II: Convexity and concavity (Q1013606)

This article continues [Part~I, in: \textit{V.\,Buslaev} (ed.) et al., ``Differential operators and spectral theory''.\ M.\,Sh.\thinspace Birman's 70th anniversary collection.\ Transl., Ser.\,2, Am.\ Math.\ Soc.\ 189(41), 59--68 (1999; Zbl 0933.47014)]. In the present article, the authors concentrate on the proof of convexity inequalities for trace functions in the following form \[ \Phi_{p,q}(A_1,\dots,A_m)=\left(\text{Tr}\left[\left(\sum_{j=1}^m A_j^p\right)^{q/p}\right]\right)^{1/q} \] for \(m\) positive definite operators \(A_j\). In Part I, the case \(q = 1\) was considered and the concavity of \(\Phi_{p,1}\) was proved for \(0< p\leq1\) and the convexity for \(p=2\). The main topic of this article is the unresolved case of joint convexity for \(1< p<2\). The paper is dealing with the following trace functions: (1) For any numbers \(p,q>0\) and any positive integer \(m\), define \(\Phi_{p,q}\) on the \(m\)-fold Cartesian product of \(H_n^+\) with itself by \[ \Phi_{p,q}(A_1,\dots,A_m)=\left\|\left(\sum_{j=1}^m A_j^p\right)^{1/p}\right\|_q. \] (2) For any numbers \(p,q>0\) and any positive integers \(m\) and \(n\), define \(\Psi_{p,q}\) on \(H_{mn}^+\) by \[ \Psi_{p,q}(A)=\left\|(\text{Tr}_2A^p)^{1/p}\right\|_q. \] (3) For any fixed \(n\times n\) matrix \(B\) and any numbers \(p,q>0\), define \(\Upsilon_{p,q}\) on \(H_n^+\) by \[ \Upsilon_{p,q}(A)=\text{Tr}\left[(B^*A^pB)^{q/p}\right]. \] The conditions on \(p\) and \(q\) are defined by Theorem 1.1.: For all \(1\leq p\leq2\), and for all \(q>1\), \(\Upsilon_{p,q}\) and \(\Psi_{p,q}\) are convex on \(H_n^+\) and \(H_{mn}^+\), respectively, while \(\Phi_{p,q}\) is jointly convex on \((H_n^+)^m\). For \(0\leq p\leq q\leq1\), \(\Upsilon_{p,q}\) and \(\Psi_{p,q}\) are concave on \(H_n^+\) and \(H_{mn}^+\), respectively, while \(\Phi_{p,q}\) is jointly concave on \((H_n^+)^m\). For \(p>2\), none of these functions are convex or concave for any values of \(q\neq p\). The application of Theorem 1.1. is Theorem 1.3: For \(1\leq q\leq p\leq 2\) and all positive operators \(A\) on \(\mathcal H=\mathcal H_1\otimes\mathcal H_2\otimes\mathcal H_3\), \[ \text{Tr}_3\left(\text{Tr}_2\left[(\text{Tr}_1A^q)^{p/q}\right]\right)^{q/p}\leq \text{Tr}_3\left(\text{Tr}_1\left[(\text{Tr}_2A^p)^{q/p}\right]\right). \] For \(0\leq p\leq1\) and any \(q\geq p\), this inequality reverses. The authors thoroughly present the techniques required for proving Theorem 1.1 and 1.3.