Solutions to some open problems in matrix analysis

Abstract

We solve a problem posed by Audenaert and Kittaneh in 2012 by proving that the Aujla--Bourin subadditivity inequality can be strengthened to an optimal form. We also answer questions posed by Bourin and the second author: (1) we significantly extend both the reciprocal Lie--Trotter theorem of Audenaert and Hiai and Kato's limit theorem; (2) we determine the best constants in inequalities for sums of contractions and positive block matrices, including the sharp triangle inequality $$|A+B+C|\le \frac{3}{4}I+|A|+|B|+|C|$$ for three contractions $A,B,C$; and (3) we prove a remarkable eigenvalue inequality for the symmetric modulus, thereby determining the best dimension-free lower bound in a question studied by Bourin, Lee, and Zhang.