Concavity of some operator functions and Fréchet differential mappings (Q2174490)

Let \(0 < p \leq 1\) and \(p \leq q \leq p+1\). It is shown that the function \((t,s) \mapsto \frac{t^q-s^q}{t^p-s^p}\) is operator concave in the positive half-line. The function \((t,s) \mapsto \frac{t^q-s^q}{\log t-\log s}\) is operator convex whenever \(0 < q \leq 1\). Operator concavity and convexity of three or four commuting variables are also investigated. The following important consequences are obtained. Let \(f(t):=t^p\), \(0 < p \leq 1\), and \(g(t):=t^q\), \(p \leq q \leq p+1\). Then the Fréchet differential mapping \(x \mapsto dg(x) * df(x)^{-1}\) is concave, whereas the Fréchet differential mapping \(x \mapsto df(x) * dg(x)^{-1}\) is convex.