A characterization of convex functions and its application to operator monotone functions (Q2446089)

For self-adjoint operators \(A,B\) on a Hilbert space \(\mathcal H\), we say that \(A \geq B\) if \(\langle Ax,x \rangle \geq \langle Bx,x \rangle\) for all \(x \in \mathcal H\). If \(\langle Ax,x \rangle \geq 0\) for all \(x \in \mathcal H\), we say that \(A\) is positive. \(A\) is said to be strictly positive if there exists a real constant \(c >0\) such that \(A \geq cI\), where \(I\) denotes the identity operator on \(\mathcal H\). This will be denoted by \(A>0\). We denote by \(A > B\) if \(A - B >0\). A real valued continuous function \(f\) defined on \([0, \infty)\) is called operator monotone if \(f(A) \geq f(B)\) whenever \(A \geq B \geq 0\). Let \(A > B \geq 0\) and let \(\varepsilon = {\| (A-B)^{-1} \|}^{-1}\). The authors prove that, if \(f\) is operator monotone on \([0, \infty)\), then \(f(A) - f(B) \geq f(\| B \| + \varepsilon) - f(\| B \|) > 0\). Recent results for the power function and the Furuta inequality are generalized.