On some open questions concerning determinantal inequalities (Q2309684)

Let \(x^\downarrow\) be the vector consisting of the elements in \(x \in {\mathbb R}^n \), arranged in non-ascending order. We say that \(x\) \textit{weakly log-majorizes} \(y\), denoted \(y \prec_{w\log} x\), if and only if \[ \prod_{i=1}^k y_i^\downarrow \le \prod_{i=1}^k x_i^\downarrow, \text{ for all } k =1, 2,\dots, n.\tag{1} \] In addition, \(x\) \textit{log-majorizes} \(y\), denoted \(y \prec_{\log} x\), if (1) is true and equality holds for \(k=n\). In [``A determinantal inequality for the geometric mean with an application in diffusion tensor'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:1502.06902}] \textit{K. M. R. Audenaert} proved that for \(n \times n\) positive semi-definite matrices \(A\) and \(B\), \[ \det (A^2 +|BA|) \le \det ( A^2+AB), \] where \(| X | = (X^*X)^{1/2}\) denotes the unique positive semi-definite part of \(X\) with respect to the polar decomposition of \(X = U|X|\), where \(U\) is unitary. \textit{M. Lin} [Commun. Contemp. Math. 19, No. 5, Article ID 1650044, 6 p. (2017; Zbl 1372.15019)] generalized Audenaert's result [loc. cit.]: \[ \det (A^2 +|BA|^p) \le \det ( A^2+A^pB^p), \quad \mbox{for all } 0 \le p \le 2, \] and he also complemented Audenaert's result [loc. cit.]: \[ \det (A^2 +|AB|) \ge \det ( A^2+AB). \] In this paper, using log-majorization, the authors prove a slightly more generalized form of Lin's conjecture [loc. cit.]: for \(n \times n\) Hermitian matrices \(A\), \(B\) and \(p \ge 0\), \[ \det (A^2 +|AB|^p) \ge \det (A^2 +|BA|^p). \] Lin [loc. cit.] was able to prove the case \(p=1\) and for all positive even integers \(p\). The authors also prove that for \(0\le p\le 2\) and \(k\ge 2p\) or for \(1\le p \le 2\) and \(k\ge 3p-2\), \[ \det (A^k +|AB|^p) \ge \det (A^k +A^p B^p), \] which proves another conjecture of Lin [loc. cit.] when \(k =2\) and \(0\le p \le \tfrac{3}{4}\). A new conjecture is given at the end of the paper.