On the thin-shell conjecture for the Schatten classes (Q2179233)

The thin-shell conjecture in convex geometry was stated in [\textit{M. Anttila} et al., Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 355, No. 12, 4723--4735 (2003; Zbl 1033.52003)]. It conjectures that for every isotropic convex body \(K\subset\mathbb{R}^m\), there exists a sequence of positive numbers \(\epsilon_m\in(0,\frac12)\) decreasing to 0 such that \[\mathrm{vol}\left(x\in K\,:\,\Big|\|x\|_2-\sqrt{m}L_K\Big|\geq \epsilon_m\sqrt{m}L_K\right)\leq \epsilon_m,\] where \(L_K\) denotes the isotropic constant of \(K\). The related variance conjecture, suggested by \textit{S. G. Bobkov} and \textit{A. Koldobsky} [Lect. Notes Math. 1807, 44--52 (2003; Zbl 1039.52003)], asked whether the quantity \(\sigma_K^2:=m\frac{\mathrm{Var}_K(\|\chi\|_2^2)}{[\mathbb{E}_K(\|\chi\|_2^2)]^2}\) is uniformly bounded from above for all isotropic convex bodies \(K\subset\mathbb{R}^m\). The authors study the thin-shell conjecture for the unit balls of the Schatten \(p\)-norms in subspaces \( E\) of \(\mathcal{M}_n(\mathbb{F})\), denoted by \(K_{p,E}\). Here \(p\geq 1\) and \(\mathcal{M}_n(\mathbb{F})\) denotes the space of \(n\times n\) matrices with entries in \(\mathbb{F}=\mathbb{R}, \mathbb{C}\) or \(\mathbb{H}\). The Schatten \(p\)-norm of a matrix \(T\in\mathcal{M}_n(\mathbb{F})\) is given by \[\|T\|_{S^n_p}:=\|s(T)\|_p,\] where \(s(T)=(s_1(T),\dots,s_n(T))\) is the non-increasing rearrangement of the eigenvalues of \((T^*T)^{1/2}\). For these convex bodies they first prove that \(\sigma_{K_{p,E}}\leq C\max\{n^{2-t},1\}\) for \(p\geq n^t\log n\), some \(t>0\), and \(C\) an absolute constant. A necessary condition for the thin-shell conjecture to be true for any of the above unit balls is given in terms of a negative correlation property for the densities \(f_{2,b,c,p}(x):=e^{-\|x\|_p^p}\left(\prod_{1\leq i<j\leq n}|x_i^2-x_j^2|^b\cdot \prod_{1\leq i \leq n}|x_i|^c\right)\). More precisely, this necessary condition is given by \[\frac{M_{2,b,c,p}(x_1^2x_2^2)}{M_{2,b,c,p}(1)}-\left(\frac{M_{2,b,c,p}(x_1^2)}{M_{2,b,c,p}(1)}\right)^2<0,\] where \(M_{2,b,c,p}(f)=\int_{\mathbb{R}^n}f(x)f_{2,b,c,p}(x)dx\).