Eigenvalue inequalities for products of matrix exponentials

Motivated by models from stochastic population biology and statistical mechanics, we proved new inequalities of the form $\text{(1) ?(e}{}^{\mathrm{A}}\text{e}{}^{\mathrm{B}}\text{)??(e}{}^{\mathrm{A+B}}\text{)}$, where A and B are n × n complex matrices, 1<n<∞, and ? is a real-valued continuous function of the eigenvalues of its matrix argument. For example, if A is essentially nonnegative, B is diagonal real, and ? is the spectral radius, then (1) holds; if in addition A is irreducible and B has at least two different diagonal elements, then the inequality (1) is strict. The proof uses Kingman's theorem on the log-convexity of the spectral radius, Lie's product formula, and perturbation theory. We conclude with conjectures.