Monotonicity of $p$-norms of multiple operators via unitary swivels

Abstract

Following the various statements of [DW16] to their logical conclusion, this note explicitly argues the following statement, implicit in [DW16]: for positive semi-definite operators $C_{1},\ldots,\,C_{L} $, a unitary $V_{C_{i}}$ commuting with $C_{i}$, and $p\geq1$, the quantity $$ \max_{V_{C_{1}},\ldots,V_{C_{L}}}\left\Vert C_{1}^{1/p}V_{C_{1}}\cdots C_{L}^{1/p}V_{C_{L}}\right\Vert _{p}^{p} $$ is monotone non-increasing with respect to $p$. The idea from [DW16] is that by allowing unitary swivels connecting a long chain of positive semi-definite operators together, we can establish such a statement, which might not hold generally without the presence of the unitary swivels. Other related statements follow directly from [DW16] as well, being implicit there, and are given explicitly in this note.