Complex disk products and Cartesian ovals (Q2329384)

The authors [Electron. J. Linear Algebra 35, 181--186 (2019; Zbl 1430.15006)] had shown that the determinant of a complex matrix is contained in the Minkowski product of its Gershgorin circles. In their proof, they showed that the product of two complex disks \(B=D(S,1)\cdot D(1,s)\) with common centre 1 where \(D(1,\delta)=\{z\in\mathbb{C} : |z-1|\le\delta\}\) is contained in another such product \(A=D(R,1)\cdot D(1,r)\) if the radii of the circles satisfy \(R\ge S\ge s\ge r\ge 0\) and \(Rr=Ss\). In this paper, the authors investigate more generally the relationship between \(A\) and \(B\) assuming only that \(R\ge S\ge s\ge r\ge 0\). The case of common centre 1 is sufficient to deal with as other cases can be reduced to this one or the product is a disk. They obtain simple conditions on the position of the left- and right-most real points of \(A\) and \(B\). More precisely, \(A\subseteq B\) if and only if the left-most real point \(\lambda_A=1-R-r|1-R|\) of \(A\) is in \(B\), that is, \(\lambda_A\le \lambda_B\). Similarly, \(B\subseteq A\) if and only if the right-most real point \(\rho_B=(1+S)(1+s)\) of \(B\) is in \(A\), that is, \(\rho_B\le \rho_A\). The proof makes use of a parametrization of the outer loop in the boundary of \(A\) found previously by the authors [loc. cit.]. The authors extend their characterizations to when one of \(A\) or \(B\) is contained in the interior of the other and to more than two products of disks.