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Bulletin of Mathematical Sciences

Some trace inequalities for exponential and logarithmic functions

Eric A. Carlen, Élliott H. Lieb

Published May 29, 2018• 4 citations

Abstract

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.

DOI: 10.1007/s13373-018-0123-3

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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.

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.

We consider a generalization of relative entropy derived from the Wigner–Yanase–Dyson entropy and give a simple, self-contained proof that it is convex. Moreover, special cases yield the joint convexity of relative entropy, and for Tr K* ApK B1-pLieb's joint concavity in (A, B) for 0 < p < 1 and Ando's joint convexity for 1 < p ≤ 2. This approach allows us to obtain conditions for equality in these cases, as well as conditions for equality in a number of inequalities which follow from them. These include the monotonicity under partial traces, and some Minkowski type matrix inequalities proved by Carlen and Lieb for [Formula: see text]. In all cases, the equality conditions are independent of p; for extensions to three spaces they are identical to the conditions for equality in the strong subadditivity of relative entropy.

Carlen-Frank-Lieb conjecture and monotonicity of

\alpha-z

R\'enyi relative entropy

In this paper we study the joint convexity/concavity of the trace functions

\Psi_{p,q,s}(A,B)=\text{Tr}(B^{\frac{q}{2}}K^*A^{p}KB^{\frac{q}{2}})^s,~~p,q,s\in \mathbb{R},

where

A

and

B

are positive definite matrices and

K

is any fixed invertible matrix. We will give full range of

(p,q,s)\in\mathbb{R}^3

for

\Psi_{p,q,s}

to be jointly convex/concave for all

K

. As a consequence, we confirm a conjecture of Carlen, Frank and Lieb. In particular, we confirm a weaker conjecture of Audenaert and Datta and obtain the full range of

(\alpha,z)

for

\alpha

-

z

Renyi relative entropies to be monotone under completely positive trace preserving maps. We also give simpler proofs of many known results, including the concavity of

\Psi_{p,0,1/p}

for

0<p<1

which was first proved by Epstein using complex analysis. The key is to reduce the problem to the joint convexity/concavity of the trace functions

\Psi_{p,1-p,1}(A,B)=\text{Tr} K^*A^{p}KB^{1-p},~~-1\le p\le 1,

using a variational method.

A Markov chain is a tripartite quantum state ρABCwhere there exists a recovery map RB→BCsuch that ρABC= RB→BC(ρAB). More generally, an approximate Markov chain ρABCis a state whose distance to the closest recovered state RB→BC(ρAB) is small. Recently it has been shown that this distance can be bounded from above by the conditional mutual information I(A : C|B)ρof the state. We improve on this connection by deriving the first bound that is tight in the commutative case and features an explicit recovery map that only depends on the reduced state pBC. The key tool in our proof is a multivariate extension of the Golden-Thompson inequality, which allows us to extend logarithmic trace inequalities from two to arbitrarily many matrices.