Interpolating the arithmetic--geometric mean inequality and its operator version (Q819138)

The paper begins with a nice introduction to means and how inequalities between means often have a matricial unitarily-invariant norm version. While this happens in many known examples, \textit{F. Hiai} and \textit{H. Kosaki} [Indiana Univ. Math. J. 48, No. 3, 899--936 (1999; Zbl 0934.15023)] have shown a counterexample. In the paper under review, a ``more dramatic'' example is presented by considering a family of means that interpolate between the geometric and arithmetic mean, namely the Heron means \[ F_\alpha(a,b)=(1-\alpha)\sqrt{ab}+\alpha\,\frac{a+b}2,\;\;\;0\leq\alpha\leq1. \] The author shows that while \[ F_\alpha(a,b)\leq F_\beta(a,b) \] whenever \(\alpha,\beta\in[0,1]\) and \(\alpha\leq\beta\), these inequalities have a matricial unitarily-invariant norm version only when \(\beta\geq1/2\).