Norm inequality for positive semidefinite matrices

inequalitylinear algebramatricesnormed-spacespositive-semidefinite

Suppose $A, B\ge0$ are positive semidefinite matrices on the complex field, is it true that
$$\Vert A^2 +B^2 \Vert \le \Vert A + B \Vert^2,$$ for the spectral norm? I have tried numeric tests and the inequality seems valid. But I could not prove it. Furthermore I want to know if this inequality can be extended to finite number of PSD matrices: $$\Vert \sum_i B_i^2 \Vert\le \Vert \sum_i B_i \Vert^2,$$ for $B_i \ge 0$?

Best Answer

Since $-(A+B)\le A-B\le A+B$, we have $\|A-B\|_2\le\|A+B\|_2$. It follows that \begin{aligned} \|A^2+B^2\|_2 &=\frac12\left\|(A-B)^2+(A+B)^2\right\|_2\\ &\le\frac12\left(\left\|(A-B)^2\right\|_2+\left\|(A+B)^2\right\|_2\right)\\ &=\frac12\left(\|A-B\|_2^2+\|A+B\|_2^2\right)\\ &\le\frac12\left(\|A+B\|_2^2+\|A+B\|_2^2\right)\\ &=\|A+B\|_2^2. \end{aligned} By Euler's four-square identity and its generalisation to sums of eight squares, I think the above proof can be generalised to the case when the LHS of the inequality is a sum of eight squares, but I am not sure if it can be generalised further.

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