Roberts orthogonality for $2\times 2$ complex matrices (Q2416461)

The authors continue their study of orthogonality relations. In a complex Banach space $X$, $x$ is Robert-orthogonal to $y$ if $\Vert x-\lambda y\Vert =\Vert x+\lambda y\Vert $ for all scalars $\lambda$. This relation is studied for complex $2 \times 2$ matrices. For matrices $A$, $B$, the authors show that orthogonality is equivalent to $$\mathrm{tr}(A^\ast B) = 0 \text{ and } (\mathrm{tr}(AB) = \mathrm{tr}(A)\mathrm{tr}(B) \text{ or } \det (A)=\det (B)=0).$$ This latter condition is also equivalent to $\vert \det (A+\lambda B)\vert = \vert \det (A-\lambda B)\vert$.