Operator monotone function

In linear algebra, the operator monotone function is an important type of real-valued function, fully classified by Charles Löwner in 1934.

[1] It is closely allied to the operator concave and operator concave functions, and is encountered in operator theory and in matrix theory, and led to the Löwner–Heinz inequality.

defined on an interval

is said to be operator monotone if whenever

are Hermitian matrices (of any size/dimensions) whose eigenvalues all belong to the domain of

and whose difference

is a positive semi-definite matrix, then necessarily

are the values of the matrix function induced by

(which are matrices of the same size as

Notation This definition is frequently expressed with the notation that is now defined.

Write

to indicate that a matrix

is positive semi-definite and write

to indicate that the difference

of two matrices

satisfies

is positive semi-definite).

as in the theorem's statement, the value of the matrix function

is the matrix (of the same size as

) defined in terms of its

's spectral decomposition

The definition of an operator monotone function may now be restated as: A function

defined on an interval

said to be operator monotone if (and only if) for all positive integers

Hermitian matrices

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