A Family of Semi-norms in $C^*$-algebras

Abstract

We introduce a new family of non-negative real-valued functions on a $C^*$-algebra $\mathcal{A}$, i.e., for $0\leq \mu \leq 1,$ $$\|a\|_{\sigma_{\mu}}= \text{sup}\left\lbrace \sqrt{|f(a)|^2 \sigma_{\mu} f(a^*a)}: f\in \mathcal{A}', \, f(1)=\|f\|=1 \right\rbrace, \quad $$ where $a\in \mathcal{A}$ and $\sigma_{\mu}$ is an interpolation path of the symmetric mean $\sigma$. These functions are semi-norms as they satisfy the norm axioms, except for the triangle inequality. Special cases satisfying triangle inequality, and a complete equality characterization is also discussed. Various bounds and relationships will be established for this new family, with a connection to the existing literature in the algebra of all bounded linear operators on a Hilbert space.