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arXiv:2203.06136 · Journal of Mathematical Physics

A trace inequality of Ando, Hiai, and Okubo and a monotonicity property of the Golden–Thompson inequality

Eric A. Carlen, Élliott H. Lieb

Published Jun 1, 2022• 2 citations

Abstract

The Golden–Thompson trace inequality, which states that Tr eH+K ≤ Tr eHeK, has proved to be very useful in quantum statistical mechanics. Golden used it to show that the classical free energy is less than the quantum one. Here, we make this G–T inequality more explicit by proving that for some operators, notably the operators of interest in quantum mechanics, H = Δ or H=−−Δ+m and K = potential, Tr eH+(1−u)KeuK is a monotone increasing function of the parameter u for 0 ≤ u ≤ 1. Our proof utilizes an inequality of Ando, Hiai, and Okubo (AHO): Tr XsYtX1−sY1−t ≤ Tr XY for positive operators X, Y and for 12≤s,t≤1, and s+t≤32. The obvious conjecture that this inequality should hold up to s + t ≤ 1 was proved false by Plevnik [Indian J. Pure Appl. Math. 47, 491–500 (2016)]. We give a different proof of AHO and also give more counterexamples in the 32,1 range. More importantly, we show that the inequality conjectured in AHO does indeed hold in the full range if X, Y have a certain positivity property—one that does hold for quantum mechanical operators, thus enabling us to prove our G–T monotonicity theorem.

DOI: 10.1063/5.0091111

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The Golden–Thompson trace inequality, which states that Tr eH+K ≤ Tr eHeK, has proved to be very useful in quantum statistical mechanics. Golden used it to show that the classical free energy is less than the quantum one. Here, we make this G–T inequality more explicit by proving that for some operators, notably the operators of interest in quantum mechanics, H = Δ or H=−−Δ+m and K = potential, Tr eH+(1−u)KeuK is a monotone increasing function of the parameter u for 0 ≤ u ≤ 1. Our proof utilizes an inequality of Ando, Hiai, and Okubo (AHO): Tr XsYtX1−sY1−t ≤ Tr XY for positive operators X, Y and for 12≤s,t≤1, and s+t≤32. The obvious conjecture that this inequality should hold up to s + t ≤ 1 was proved false by Plevnik [Indian J. Pure Appl. Math. 47, 491–500 (2016)]. We give a different proof of AHO and also give more counterexamples in the 32,1 range. More importantly, we show that the inequality conjectured in AHO does indeed hold in the full range if X, Y have a certain positivity property—one that does hold for quantum mechanical operators, thus enabling us to prove our G–T monotonicity theorem.

We prove several trace inequalities that extend the Golden–Thompson and the Araki–Lieb–Thirring inequality to arbitrarily many matrices. In particular, we strengthen Lieb’s triple matrix inequality. As an example application of our four matrix extension of the Golden–Thompson inequality, we prove remainder terms for the monotonicity of the quantum relative entropy and strong sub-additivity of the von Neumann entropy in terms of recoverability. We find the first explicit remainder terms that are tight in the commutative case. Our proofs rely on complex interpolation theory as well as asymptotic spectral pinching, providing a transparent approach to treat generic multivariate trace inequalities.

Consider a function F(X,Y) of pairs of positive matrices with values in the positive matrices such that whenever X and Y commute F(X,Y)=XpYq. Our first main result gives conditions on F such that Tr[X log(F(Z,Y))]≤Tr[X(p log X+q log Y)] for all X,Y,Z such that TrZ=TrX. (Note that Z is absent from the right side of the inequality.) We give several examples of functions F to which the theorem applies. Our theorem allows us to give simple proofs of the well-known logarithmic inequalities of Hiai and Petz and several new generalizations of them which involve three variables X,Y,Z instead of just X,Y alone. The investigation of these logarithmic inequalities is closely connected with three quantum relative entropy functionals: The standard Umegaki quantum relative entropy D(X∥Y)=Tr[X(log X− log Y]), and two others, the Donald relative entropy DD(X∥Y), and the Belavkin–Stasewski relative entropy DBS(X∥Y). They are known to satisfy DD(X∥Y)≤D(X∥Y)≤DBS(X∥Y). We prove that the Donald relative entropy provides the sharp upper bound, independent of Z on Tr[X log(F(Z,Y))] in a number of cases in which F(Z,Y) is homogeneous of degree 1 in Z and −1 in Y. We also investigate the Legendre transforms in X of DD(X∥Y) and DBS(X∥Y), and show how our results for these lead to new refinements of the Golden–Thompson inequality.

We prove several trace inequalities that extend the Golden–Thompson and the Araki–Lieb–Thirring inequality to arbitrarily many matrices. In particular, we strengthen Lieb’s triple matrix inequality. As an example application of our four matrix extension of the Golden–Thompson inequality, we prove remainder terms for the monotonicity of the quantum relative entropy and strong sub-additivity of the von Neumann entropy in terms of recoverability. We find the first explicit remainder terms that are tight in the commutative case. Our proofs rely on complex interpolation theory as well as asymptotic spectral pinching, providing a transparent approach to treat generic multivariate trace inequalities.

For quantum systems, it is shown that the relative entropy S(P,Q)=-Tr P log P+Tr P log Q of two positive semi-definite operators P and Q satisfies gamma -1 Tr(P-P 1+ gamma Q - gamma )<or=S(P,Q)<or= gamma -1 Tr(P 1- gamma Q gamma -P) for 0( gamma <or=1, and that these bounds become exact in the limit gamma to Phi . Analogous inequalities hold, for states in classical statistical mechanics or information theory, with trace replaced by integration or summation. Furthermore, the average of these bounds is, in general a better approximation to S(P,Q) than either bound alone, and the average is amenable to further improvement via repeated Richardson extrapolation. IF P and Q are Gibbs equilibrium states, then these inequalities can also be used to obtain bounds on the free energy of a perturbed system in terms of the free energy of the unperturbed system and expectations of the perturbation.