The Frobenius norm and the commutator (Q947650)

It is proved that \( \| XY-YX\| _F \leq \sqrt{2}\| X\| _F \| Y\| _F \) holds for arbitrary complex \(n\)-by-\(n\) matrices \(X\) and \(Y\), where \(\| X\| _F=\sqrt{\text{tr}(X^* X)}\) denotes the Frobenius norm of \(X\). The inequality has been conjectured by the authors in an earlier paper, see \textit{A. Böttcher} and \textit{D. Wenzel} [Linear Algebra Appl. 403, 216--228 (2005; Zbl 1077.15020)]. That the equality holds for real matrices has been proved by \textit{S.-W. Vong} and \textit{X.-Q. Jin} [Oper. Matrices 2, No. 3, 435--442 (2008; Zbl 1173.15013)] and, independently, by \textit{Zhiqin Lu} [\url{http://arxiv.org/abs/0711.3510}]. The second part of the paper is devoted to some improvements of the above inequality and to the question when equality holds. In the last part of the paper the above inequality is considered with Frobenius norm replaced by unitarily invariant norms.