Spectral exponent of finite sums of weighted positive operators in \(L^p\)-spaces (Q2464742)

If \(X\) is a compact topological space with Borel measure \(\mu\), then for \(1\leq p<\infty\), let \(L^p(X)= L^p(X,\mu)\) denote \(\{[f]:\|[f]\|_p=\| f\|_p<\infty\}\), where \([f]\) is the equivalence class of functions which differ from \(f\) on sets of measure \(0\) and \(\| f\|_p= (\int_X|f|^p d\mu)^{1/p}\). The space of continuous functions on \(X\) is denoted by \({\mathcal C}(X)\) and \({\mathcal C}(X)^N\) denotes the space of \(N\)-tuples of elements of \({\mathcal C}(X)\) for a positive integer \(N\). If \(U_k: L^p(X)\to L^p(X)\), \(k= 1,2,\dots,N\), are positive linear operators and if \(\varphi= (\varphi_1,\varphi_2,\dots, \varphi_N)\in C(X)^N\), then the operator \(A_\varphi\) is defined by \(A_\varphi= \sum^N_{k=1} e^{\varphi_k}U_k\). The main results of this paper provide expressions for \(\ln r(A_\varphi)\), the logarithm of the spectral radius of operators of the form \(A_\varphi\). In particular, it is shown that if \(U_k(1)= 1\), \(k=1,2,\dots,N\), and denoting \[ \mathfrak{Mes}= \{v\in({\mathcal C}(X)^N)^*: v(\varphi)\geq 1\text{ for all }\varphi\in{\mathcal C}(X)^N\}, \] then there is a convex lower semi-continuous functional \({\mathfrak T}\) on \(\mathfrak{Mes}\) such that \[ \ln r(A_\varphi)= \max\{v(\varphi)-{\mathfrak T}(v), v\in\mathfrak{Mes}\}.\tag{\(*\)} \] The introduction of the paper refers to earlier papers in which expressions corresponding to special cases of \((*)\) have been derived for the weighted shift operator \(T_{a,\alpha}\) defined by \(T_{a,\alpha}(f)(x)= a(x)f(\alpha(x))\).