Norms of certain Jordan elementary operators

Let H be a complex Hilbert space and let B(H) denote the algebra of all bounded linear operators on H. For A,B∈B(H), the Jordan elementary operator UA,B is defined by UA,B(X)=AXB+BXA, ∀X∈B(H). In this short note, we discuss the norm of UA,B. We show that if dimH=2 and ‖UA,B‖=‖A‖‖B‖, then either AB^∗ or B^∗A is 0. We give some examples of Jordan elementary operators UA,B such that ‖UA,B‖=‖A‖‖B‖ but AB^∗≠0 and B^∗A≠0, which answer negatively a question posed by M. Boumazgour in M. Boumazgour, Norm inequalities for sums of two basic elementary operators, J. Math. Anal. Appl. 342 (2008) 386-393].