Extensions of Hartfiel's inequality to multiple matrices (Q2174472)

For any \(n\times n\) positive definite matrices \(A,B\), \textit{D.J. Hartfiel}'s inequality (see [Proc. Amer. Math. Soc. 41, 463--465. (1973; Zbl 0282.15011)]) states the following: \[ \det(A+B)\geq\left(1+\sum_{k=1}^{n-1}\frac{\det B_k}{\det A_k}\right)\det A+\left(1+\sum_{k=1}^{n-1}\frac{\det A_k}{\det B_k}\right)\det B \] \[ +(2^n-2n)\sqrt{\det AB}, \] where \(A_k\) and \(B_k\) (\(k =1,\ldots,n-1\)) denote the \(k\)-th leading principal submatrices of \(A\) and \(B\), respectively. In the present paper, this result is extended to a finite number of matrices as follows. If \(A_j\) (\(j=1,\ldots,m\)) are \(n\times n\) positive definite matrices then there holds: \[ \det\left(\sum_{j=1}^m A_j\right)\geq\sum_{j=1}^m\left(1+\sum_{k=1}^{n-1}\frac{\sum_{\stackrel{i=1}{i\neq j}}^m\det A_{ik}}{\det A_{jk}}\right)\det A_j \] \[ +(2^n-2n)\sum_{1\leq i<j\leq m}\sqrt{\det A_i\det A_j}, \] where \(A_{jk}\) denotes the \(k\)-th leading principal submatrix of \(A_j\). A generalization of this inequality to sector matrices is also established.