1 Introduction

Let M n (C) be the space of complex n×n matrices. For any A M n (C), the conjugate transpose of A is denoted by A . A M n (C) is said to be accretive-dissipative if it has the Hermitian decomposition

A=B+iC,B= B ,C= C ,
(1.1)

where both matrices B and C are positive definite. For simplicity, let A, B, C be partitioned as

( A 11 A 12 A 21 A 22 )=( B 11 B 12 B 12 B 22 )+i( C 11 C 12 C 12 C 22 )
(1.2)

such that the diagonal blocks A 11 and A 22 are of order k and l (k>0, l>0 and k+l=n), respectively, and let m=min{k,l}.

If B= I n in (1.1), then an accretive-dissipative matrix A M n (C) is called a Buckley matrix.

If A M n (C) is partitioned as

( A 11 A 12 A 21 A 22 ),

where A 11 is a nonsingular submatrix, then the matrix A/ A 11 := A 22 A 21 A 11 1 A 12 is called the Schur complement of the submatrix A 11 in A. For a nonsingular matrix A, its condition number is denoted by κ(A):= λ max ( A A ) λ min ( A A ) which is the ratio of largest and smallest singular values of A. For Hermitian matrices B,C M n (C), we write BC if BC is positive-semidefinite.

If A M n (C) is positive definite and partitioned as in (1.2), then the famous Fischer-type determinantal inequality is proved [[1], p.478]:

detAdet A 11 det A 22 .
(1.3)

If A M n (C) is an accretive-dissipative matrix and partitioned as in (1.2), Ikramov [2] first proved the determinantal inequality for A:

|detA| 3 m |det A 11 ||det A 22 |.
(1.4)

Very recently, Lin [[3], Theorem 8] got a stronger result than (1.4) as follows.

If A M n (C) is an accretive-dissipative matrix, then

|detA| 2 3 2 m |det A 11 ||det A 22 |.
(1.5)

For Buckley matrices, the stronger bound was obtained by Ikramov [2]:

|detA| ( 1 + 17 4 ) m |det A 11 ||det A 22 |.
(1.6)

The purpose of this paper is to give refinements of (1.5) and (1.6). Our main results can be stated as follows.

Theorem 1 Let A M n (C) be accretive-dissipative and partitioned as in (1.2). Then

|detA| 2 1 2 m ( 1 + ( 1 κ 1 + κ ) 2 ) m |det A 11 ||det A 22 |,
(1.7)

where κ is the maximum of the condition numbers of B and C.

Because of 2 m 2 ( 1 + ( κ 1 κ + 1 ) 2 ) m 2 3 2 m , inequality (1.7) is a refinement of inequality (1.5).

Theorem 2 Let A M n (C) be a Buckley matrix and partitioned as in (1.2). Then

|detA| ( d 2 + d 16 + d 2 + 8 8 ) m 2 |det A 11 ||det A 22 |,
(1.8)

where κ is the condition number of C and d= ( κ 1 κ + 1 ) 2 [0,1].

It is clear that inequality (1.8) improves (1.6). In fact, since the function

f(x)= ( x 2 + x 16 + x 2 + 8 8 ) m 2

is increasing for x[0,1], thus we have

f(d)= ( d 2 + d 16 + d 2 + 8 8 ) m 2 f(1)= ( 17 + 1 4 ) m ,

which implies that (1.8) is a refinement of (1.6).

2 Proofs of main results

To achieve the proofs of Theorem 1 and Theorem 2, we need the following lemmas.

Lemma 3 [[4], Property 6]

Let A M n (C) be accretive-dissipative and partitioned as in (1.2). Then A/ A 11 := A 22 A 21 A 11 1 A 12 , the Schur complement of A 11 in A is also accretive-dissipative.

Lemma 4 [[2], Lemma 1]

Let A M n (C) be accretive-dissipative and partitioned as in (1.2). Then A 1 =EiF with E= ( B + C B 1 C ) 1 and F= ( C + B C 1 B ) 1 .

Lemma 5 [[2], Lemma 5]

Let A 1 , A 2 M n (C) be accretive-dissipative matrices and let

A 1 = B 1 +i C 1 , A 2 = B 2 +i C 2

be the Hermitian decompositions of these matrices. If

B 1 B 2 , C 1 C 2 ,

then

|det A 1 ||det A 2 |.
(2.1)

Lemma 6 [[3], Lemma 6]

Let B,C M n (C) be positive definite. Then

| det ( B + i C ) | det(B+C) 2 n 2 | det ( B + i C ) | .
(2.2)

Lemma 7 [[5], (6)]

Let A M n (C) be positive definite. Then

A 12 A 22 1 A 21 ( λ 1 λ n λ 1 + λ n ) 2 A 11 ,
(2.3)

where λ 1 and λ n are the largest and the smallest eigenvalues of A.

Lemma 8 [[6], Lemma 3.2]

Let B,C M n (C) be Hermitian and assume that B>0. Then

B+C B 1 C2C.
(2.4)

Remark 1 A stronger inequality than (2.4) was given in Lin [[7], Lemma 2.2]: Let A>0 and any Hermitian B. Then A(B A 1 B)B.

In what follows, we give the proofs of Theorem 1 and Theorem 2.

Proof of Theorem 1 By Lemma 4, we obtain

A / A 11 = A 22 A 21 A 11 1 A 12 = B 22 + i C 22 ( B 12 + i C 12 ) ( B 11 + i C 11 ) 1 ( B 12 + i C 12 ) = B 22 + i C 22 ( B 12 + i C 12 ) ( E k i F k ) ( B 12 + i C 12 ) .

Furthermore, we have

E k = ( B 11 + C 11 B 11 1 C 11 ) 1 , F k = ( C 11 + B 11 C 11 1 B 11 ) 1 ,

where E k and F k are positive definite.

By Lemma 8 and the operator reverse monotonicity of the inverse, we get

E k 1 2 C 11 1 , F k 1 2 B 11 1 .
(2.5)

Set A/ A 11 =R+iS with R= R , S= S . By Lemma 3, it is easy to know that R, S are positive definite. A simple calculation shows

R = B 22 B 12 E k B 12 + C 12 E k C 12 B 12 F k C 12 C 12 F k B 12 , S = C 22 + B 12 F k B 12 C 12 F k C 12 C 12 E k B 12 B 12 E k C 12 .

By the inequalities

( B 12 ± C 12 ) F k ( B 12 ± C 12 )0, ( B 12 ± C 12 ) E k ( B 12 ± C 12 )0,

it can be proved that

± ( B 12 F k C 12 + C 12 F k B 12 ) B 12 F k B 12 + C 12 F k C 12 , ± ( C 12 E k B 12 + B 12 E k C 12 ) B 12 E k B 12 + C 12 E k C 12 .

Thus

R+S B 22 +2 B 12 F k B 12 + C 22 +2 C 12 E k C 12 .
(2.6)

Since B, C are positive definite, we have by Lemma 7

B 12 B 22 1 B 12 ( λ 1 λ n λ 1 + λ n ) 2 B 11 , C 12 C 22 1 C 12 ( λ 1 λ n λ 1 + λ n ) 2 C 11 .
(2.7)

By (2.7), it is easy to know that

B 12 B 11 1 B 12 ( λ 1 λ n λ 1 + λ n ) 2 B 22 , C 12 C 11 1 C 12 ( λ 1 λ n λ 1 + λ n ) 2 C 22 .
(2.8)

In (2.7) and (2.8), λ 1 and λ n ( λ 1 and λ n ) are the largest and the smallest eigenvalues of B (C), respectively.

Note that f(x)= ( x 1 x + 1 ) m (m1) is increasing for x[1,). Without loss of generality, assume m=l. Then we have

| det A / A 11 | = | det R + i S | det ( R + S ) (by Lemma 6) det ( B 22 + 2 B 12 F k B 12 + C 22 + 2 C 12 E k C 12 ) (by (2.6)) det ( B 22 + B 12 B 11 1 B 12 + C 22 + C 12 C 11 1 C 12 ) (by (2.5)) det ( B 22 + C 22 + ( λ 1 λ n λ 1 + λ n ) 2 B 22 + ( λ 1 λ n λ 1 + λ n ) 2 C 22 ) (by (2.8)) = det ( B 22 + C 22 + ( λ 1 λ n 1 λ 1 λ n + 1 ) 2 B 22 + ( λ 1 λ n 1 λ 1 λ n + 1 ) 2 C 22 ) ( 1 + ( κ 1 κ + 1 ) 2 ) m det ( B 22 + C 22 ) 2 m 2 ( 1 + ( κ 1 κ + 1 ) 2 ) m | det ( B 22 + i C 22 ) | (by Lemma 6) = 2 m 2 ( 1 + ( κ 1 κ + 1 ) 2 ) m | det A 22 | ,

where κ=max( λ 1 λ n , λ 1 λ n )1, i.e., the maximum of the condition numbers of B and C.

By noting

|detA|=|det A 11 | | det ( A / A 11 ) | ,

the proof is completed. □

Remark 2 In fact, a reverse direction to the inequality of Theorem 1 has been given in Lin [[8], Theorem 1.2].

Proof of Theorem 2 The proof is similar to Theorem 1. By Lemma 4, we obtain

A / A 11 = A 22 A 21 A 11 1 A 12 = I l + i C 22 C 12 ( I k + i C 11 ) 1 C 12 = I l + i C 22 + C 12 ( E k i F k ) C 12

with

E k = ( I k + C 11 2 ) 1 , F k = ( C 11 + C 11 1 ) 1 .

By Lemma 8 and the operator reverse monotonicity of the inverse, we get

E k 1 2 C 11 1 , F k 1 2 I k .
(2.9)

Set A/ A 11 =R+iS with R= R , S= S . By Lemma 3, it is easy to know that R and S are positive definite. A simple calculation shows

R = I l + C 12 E k C 12 , S = C 22 C 12 F k C 12 ,

where F k is positive definite. Therefore

S C 22 .

By (2.9), we have

R I l + 1 2 C 12 C 11 1 C 12 .

As C is positive definite, we get by (2.8)

C 12 C 11 1 C 12 ( λ 1 λ n λ 1 + λ n ) 2 C 22 ,
(2.10)

where λ 1 , λ n are the largest and the smallest eigenvalues of C. So we have

R I l + 1 2 ( λ 1 λ n λ 1 + λ n ) 2 C 22 .

Without loss of generality, assume m=l. Thus we get

| det A / A 11 | = | det R + i S | det ( I l + 1 2 ( λ 1 λ n λ 1 + λ n ) 2 C 22 + i C 22 ) (by Lemma 5) = det ( I l + 1 2 ( λ 1 λ n 1 λ 1 λ n + 1 ) 2 C 22 + i C 22 ) = det ( I l + 1 2 ( κ 1 κ + 1 ) 2 C 22 + i C 22 ) ,

where κ= λ 1 λ n .

Let γ 1 γ 2 γ l be the eigenvalues of C 22 and we denote d= ( κ 1 κ + 1 ) 2 . Then it is easy to know that

|detA/ A 11 | | det ( I l + 1 2 ( κ 1 κ + 1 ) 2 C 22 + i C 22 ) |
(2.11)
= j = 1 l | ( 1 + 1 2 d γ j ) + i γ j |
(2.12)
= j = 1 l [ ( 1 + 1 2 d γ j ) 2 + γ j 2 ] 1 2 .
(2.13)

On the other hand,

|det A 22 |= | det ( I + i C 22 ) | = j = 1 l ( 1 + γ j 2 ) 1 2 .
(2.14)

By (2.13) and (2.14), we have

| det A | = | det A 11 | | det ( A / A 11 ) | = | det ( A / A 11 ) | | det A 22 | | det A 11 | | det A 22 | j = 1 l [ ( 1 + 1 2 d γ j ) 2 + γ j 2 ] 1 2 j = 1 l ( 1 + γ j 2 ) 1 2 | det A 11 | | det A 22 | .

By noting

max x 0 ( 1 + d 2 x ) 2 + x 2 1 + x 2 = d 2 + d 16 + d 2 + 8 8 ,0d1,

the proof is completed. □