In physics and mathematics, the Golden–Thompson inequality is a trace inequality between exponentials of symmetric and Hermitian matrices proved independently by Golden (1965) and Thompson (1965). It has been developed in the context of statistical mechanics, where it has come to have a particular significance.

Statement

The Golden–Thompson inequality states that for (real) symmetric or (complex) Hermitian matrices A and B, the following trace inequality holds:

${\displaystyle \operatorname {tr} \,e^{A+B}\leq \operatorname {tr} \left(e^{A}e^{B}\right).}$

This inequality is well defined, since the quantities on either side are real numbers. For the expression on right hand side of the inequality, this can be seen by rewriting it as ${\displaystyle \operatorname {tr} (e^{A/2}e^{B}e^{A/2})}$ using the cyclic property of the trace.

Generalizations

The Golden–Thompson inequality generalizes to any unitarily invariant norm. If A and B are Hermitian matrices and ${\displaystyle \|\cdot \|}$ is a unitarily invariant norm, then

${\displaystyle \|e^{A+B}\|\leq \|e^{A/2}e^{B}e^{A/2}\|.}$

The standard Golden–Thompson inequality is a special case of the above inequality, where the norm is the Schatten norm with ${\displaystyle p=1}$. Since ${\displaystyle e^{A+B}}$ and ${\displaystyle e^{A/2}e^{B}e^{A/2}}$ are both positive semidefinite matrices, ${\displaystyle \operatorname {tr} (e^{A+B})=\|e^{A+B}\|_{1}}$ and ${\displaystyle \operatorname {tr} (e^{A/2}e^{B}e^{A/2})=\|e^{A/2}e^{B}e^{A/2}\|_{1}}$.

The inequality has been generalized to three matrices by Lieb (1973) and furthermore to any arbitrary number of Hermitian matrices by Sutter, Berta & Tomamichel (2016). A naive attempt at generalization does not work: the inequality

${\displaystyle \operatorname {tr} (e^{A+B+C})\leq |\operatorname {tr} (e^{A}e^{B}e^{C})|}$

is false. For three matrices, the correct generalization takes the following form:

${\displaystyle \operatorname {tr} \,e^{A+B+C}\leq \operatorname {tr} \left(e^{A}{\mathcal {T}}_{e^{-B}}e^{C}\right),}$

where the operator ${\displaystyle {\mathcal {T}}_{f}}$ is the derivative of the matrix logarithm given by ${\displaystyle {\mathcal {T}}_{f}(g)=\int _{0}^{\infty }\operatorname {d} t\,(f+t)^{-1}g(f+t)^{-1}}$. Note that, if ${\displaystyle f}$ and ${\displaystyle g}$ commute, then ${\displaystyle {\mathcal {T}}_{f}(g)=gf^{-1}}$, and the inequality for three matrices reduces to the original from Golden and Thompson.

Bertram Kostant (1973) used the Kostant convexity theorem to generalize the Golden–Thompson inequality to all compact Lie groups.

References

• Bhatia, Rajendra (1997), Matrix analysis, Graduate Texts in Mathematics, vol. 169, Berlin, New York: Springer-Verlag, doi:10.1007/978-1-4612-0653-8, ISBN 978-0-387-94846-1, MR 1477662
• Cohen, J.E.; Friedland, S.; Kato, T.; Kelly, F. (1982), "Eigenvalue inequalities for products of matrix exponentials", Linear Algebra and Its Applications, 45: 55–95, doi:10.1016/0024-3795(82)90211-7
• Golden, Sidney (1965), "Lower bounds for the Helmholtz function", Phys. Rev., Series II, 137 (4B): B1127–B1128, Bibcode:1965PhRv..137.1127G, doi:10.1103/PhysRev.137.B1127, MR 0189691
• Kostant, Bertram (1973), "On convexity, the Weyl group and the Iwasawa decomposition", Annales Scientifiques de l'École Normale Supérieure, Série 4, 6 (4): 413–455, doi:10.24033/asens.1254, ISSN 0012-9593, MR 0364552
• Lieb, Elliott H (1973), "Convex trace functions and the Wigner-Yanase-Dyson conjecture", Advances in Mathematics, 11 (3): 267–288, doi:10.1016/0001-8708(73)90011-X
• Petz, D. (1994), A survey of trace inequalities, in Functional Analysis and Operator Theory (PDF), vol. 30, Warszawa: Banach Center Publications, pp. 287–298
• Sutter, David; Berta, Mario; Tomamichel, Marco (2016), "Multivariate Trace Inequalities", Communications in Mathematical Physics, 352 (1): 37–58, arXiv:1604.03023, Bibcode:2017CMaPh.352...37S, doi:10.1007/s00220-016-2778-5, S2CID 12081784
• Thompson, Colin J. (1965), "Inequality with applications in statistical mechanics", Journal of Mathematical Physics, 6 (11): 1812–1813, Bibcode:1965JMP.....6.1812T, doi:10.1063/1.1704727, ISSN 0022-2488, MR 0189688

External links

• Tao, T. (2010), The Golden–Thompson inequality
• Forrester, Peter J; Thompson, Colin J (2014). "The Golden-Thompson inequality --- historical aspects and random matrix applications". Journal of Mathematical Physics. 55 (2): 023503. arXiv:1408.2008. Bibcode:2014JMP....55b3503F. doi:10.1063/1.4863477. S2CID 119676709.