Operator means of probability measures

Abstract

Let $\mathbb{P}$ be the complete metric space consisting of positive invertible operators on an infinite-dimensional Hilbert space with the Thompson metric. We introduce the notion of operator means of probability measures on $\mathbb{P}$, in parallel with Kubo and Ando's definition of two-variable operator means, and show that every operator mean is contractive for the $\infty$-Wasserstein distance. By means of a fixed point method we consider deformation of such operator means, and show that the deformation of any operator mean becomes again an operator mean in our sense. Based on this deformation procedure we prove a number of properties and inequalities for operator means of probability measures.