A reverse Hadamard inequality (Q2564946)

Let \(U\) be a unitary \(n\times n\) matrix with determinant equal to 1. Let \(A\) be an \(n\times n\) real matrix with rank at most 2 and all entries at least 1. Then \(\text{det} (A\bullet U) \geq 1\), where \(A\bullet U\) is the elementwise product of \(A\) and \(U\). Two proofs are given: One relying on a classical result of Fiedler's and one due to the authors. The result is applied to an external vertices theorem.