Random walks on symmetric spaces and inequalities for matrix spectra (Q5926391)

This paper applies random walks on groups and symmetric spaces to matrix spectral problems, the main tool being a decomposition of the probability distribution of a random walk by spherical functions. This includes the Plancherel measure (which is known for all Riemannian symmetric spaces). The singular spectral problem for products of matrices is reduced to the recently solved spectral problem for sums of Hermitian matrices. This proves a conjecture of \textit{R. C. Thompson} [Matrix spectral inequalities. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, MD (1988)].