An operator inequality and self-adjointness. (Q1418976)

Denote by \({\mathcal B}({\mathcal H})\) the space of all bounded linear operators on a Hilbert space \({\mathcal H}\). The main result of the present paper asserts that for two given positive invertible operators \(A, B \in {\mathcal B}({\mathcal H})\), the inequality \[ \| AXA^{-1}\| + \| BXB^{-1}\| \geq 2 \| X\| \] holds for all rank one operators \(X \in {\mathcal B}({\mathcal H})\) if and only if \(B = f(A)\), where \(f: \sigma(A) \to \sigma(B)\) is a positive strictly increasing function satisfying \[ \frac{f(s)}{t} \, \leq \, \frac{f(t) - f(s)}{t - s} \, \leq \, \frac{f(t)}{s} \] for all \(s < t\) from \(\sigma(A)\). This theorem generalizes a result of \textit{A.~Seddik} concerning the so-called Corach--Porta--Recht inequality [Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 129, No. 10, 3009--3015 (2001; Zbl 0981.47009)].