The closed-form conjecture for the optimal Schatten norm constant for m matrices

From papers

Let Mn(C)=Cn×nM_n(\mathbb C)=\mathbb C^{n\times n}, and for AMn(C)A\in M_n(\mathbb C) write A=(AA)1/2|A|=(A^*A)^{1/2}. For p>1p>1 and m2m\geq2, let cp(m)c_p(m) be the smallest number such that

k=1mAkpcp(m)k=1mAkp\left\|\sum_{k=1}^m A_k\right\|_p\leq c_p(m)\left\|\sum_{k=1}^m|A_k|\right\|_p

for all A1,,AmMn(C)A_1,\dots,A_m\in M_n(\mathbb C). The closed-form conjecture. If xp,m>0x_{p,m}>0 is the positive solution of

xp2x(m1)=0,x^p-2x-(m-1)=0,

then

cp(m)=xp,m(xp,m+m1)(xp,mp+m1)1/p.c_p(m)=\frac{\sqrt{x_{p,m}(x_{p,m}+m-1)}}{\left(x_{p,m}^{\,p}+m-1\right)^{1/p}}.

This conjecture extends Lee's problem from two matrices to an arbitrary number of matrices and is motivated by numerical experiments. The paper notes that the formula recovers the known cases p=1,2,p=1,2,\infty, while the optimal value for general p>1p>1 is the unresolved issue addressed by the conjecture.

Progress summary

Nothing recorded yet. Refresh searches the literature and the public web for attempts on this problem, and writes the first summary here.

Sources & referencesView supporting material

Primary source

Quanyu Tang and Shu Zhang, “Generalizing Lee's conjecture on the sum of absolute values of matrices”, arXiv:2510.16846 (2025).

Solutions 0

No solutions have been posted yet.