Question

Assume $A, B$ are self-ajoint compact operators. Is it true that $\|A+iB\|\le \|2A+iB\|$? Do we have a stronger inequality $\prod_{k=1}^ns_k(A+iB)\le \prod_{k=1}^ns_k(2A+iB)$ or even stronger one $s_n(A+iB)\le s_n(2A+iB)$, $n=1, 2, \ldots$, where $s_n$ are s-numbers?

Answer 1

I just tried a few random matrices... $$ \begin{align} &A=\begin{bmatrix} -0.1 & -0.4\cr -0.4&0\end{bmatrix}, \qquad B=\begin{bmatrix} 1.5 & -0.5 + i\cr -0.5 - i& 3.5\end{bmatrix}, \cr &\|A+iB\| = \frac{7}{2}+\frac{\sqrt{61}}{10}\approx 4.28 \cr &\|2A+iB\| = \frac{7}{2}+\frac{\sqrt{29}}{10}\approx 4.04 \end{align} $$

Answer 2

1. $s_n(A+iB) \not\le s_n(2A+iB)$, for example by setting \begin{equation*} A = \begin{bmatrix} -2 & -6\\ -6 & -2 \end{bmatrix}\qquad B = \begin{bmatrix} 10 & 4\\ 4 & 16 \end{bmatrix}. \end{equation*} In this case, $s_2(A+iB) = 7.7192$ and $s_2(2A+iB) = 4.9433$.

2. $\prod_{k=1}^n s_k(A+iB) \not\le \prod_{k=1}^n s_k(2A+iB)$ for the same example as above. The lhs is 156, while the rhs is 129.2440.

3. The operator norm version also does not hold (as shown in the nice counterexample by Gerald Edgar)

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EDIT

If, however, $A$ and $B$ are assumed to be positive definite, then these inequalities probably hold. As a hint why they might hold (I have not had the time to check any of the other cases), consider $C=A+iB$ and $D=2A+iB$ with $A,B \ge 0$. Then,

\begin{equation*} \begin{split} \prod_{j=1}^n s_j(C) = |\det C| &= \det(A)\prod_{j=1}^n[1+ s_j(A^{-1/2}BA^{-1/2})^2]^{1/2}\\ \prod_{j=1}^n s_j(D) = |\det D| &= \det(A)\prod_{j=1}^n2\left[1+ \frac{s_j(A^{-1/2}BA^{-1/2})^2}{4}\right]^{1/2}\\ &= \det(A)\prod_{j=1}^n[4+ s_j(A^{-1/2}BA^{-1/2})^2]^{1/2} \ge |\det(C)|. \end{split} \end{equation*}