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Sergei Ivanov
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Not true in general: take $S=T=-I$. Then the inequality boils down to $\frac{b}{b+1}<\frac{a}{a+1}$ which is always false for $b>a>1$.

For positive symmetric matrices, yes. Fix $a$ and let $b\to+\infty$. The l.h.s equals to $\rho((I-\frac1bS)^{-1}T)$ which goes to $\rho(T)$. And the r.h.s. is greater than $\rho(T)$. Indeed, the matrix $S':=(I-\frac1aS)^{-1}$ satisfies $|S'(v)|>|v|$ for all $v\in\mathbb R^n\setminus 0$ (where $n$ is the size of the matrices). Let $v$ be an eigenvector of $T$ corresponding to the maximal eigenvalue $\lambda=\rho(T)$. Then $|S'T(v)|>|T(v)|=\lambda |v|$, hence $\rho(S'T)>\lambda$ by the minimax principle.

Sergei Ivanov
  • 32.4k
  • 2
  • 99
  • 154