Complete characterization of Hadamard powers preserving Loewner positivity, monotonicity, and convexity

Abstract

Entrywise powers of symmetric matrices preserving positivity, monotonicity or convexity with respect to the Loewner ordering arise in various applications, and have received much attention recently in the literature. Following FitzGerald and Horn [J. Math. Anal. Appl., 1977], it is well-known that there exists a critical exponent beyond which all entrywise powers preserve positive definiteness. Similar phase transition phenomena have also recently been shown by Hiai (2009) to occur for monotonicity and convexity. In this paper, we complete the characterization of all the entrywise powers below and above the critical exponents that are positive, monotone, or convex on the cone of positive semidefinite matrices. We then extend the original problem by fully classifying the positive, monotone, or convex powers in a more general setting where additional rank constraints are imposed on the matrices. We also classify the entrywise powers that are super/sub-additive with respect to the Loewner ordering. Finally, we extend all the previous characterizations to matrices with negative entries. Our analysis consequently allows us to answer a question raised by Bhatia and Elsner (2007) regarding the smallest dimension for which even extensions of the power functions do not preserve Loewner positivity.