In linear algebra and functional analysis, the min-max theorem, or variational theorem, or Courant–Fischer–Weyl min-max principle, is a result that gives a variational characterization of eigenvalues of compact Hermitian operators on Hilbert spaces. It can be viewed as the starting point of many results of similar nature.
This article first discusses the finite-dimensional case and its applications before considering compact operators on infinite-dimensional Hilbert spaces.
We will see that for compact operators, the proof of the main theorem uses essentially the same idea from the finite-dimensional argument.
In the case that the operator is non-Hermitian, the theorem provides an equivalent characterization of the associated singular values.
The min-max theorem can be extended to self-adjoint operators that are bounded below.
Matrices
Let A be a n × n Hermitian matrix. As with many other variational results on eigenvalues, one considers the Rayleigh–Ritz quotient RA : Cn \ {0} → R defined by

where (⋅, ⋅) denotes the Euclidean inner product on Cn.
Equivalently, the Rayleigh–Ritz quotient can be replaced by

The Rayleigh quotient of an eigenvector
is its associated eigenvalue
because
.
For a Hermitian matrix A, the range of the continuous functions RA(x) and f(x) is a compact interval [a, b] of the real line. The maximum b and the minimum a are the largest and smallest eigenvalue of A, respectively. The min-max theorem is a refinement of this fact.
Min-max theorem
Let
be Hermitian on an inner product space
with dimension
, with spectrum ordered in descending order
.
Let
be the corresponding unit-length orthogonal eigenvectors.
Reverse the spectrum ordering, so that
.
min-max theorem—
Proof
Part 2 is a corollary of part 1, by using
.
By Poincare’s inequality,
is an upper bound to the right side.
By setting
, the upper bound is achieved.
Define the partial trace
to be the trace of projection of
to
. It is equal to
given an orthonormal basis of
.
Wielandt minimax formula ([1]: 44 )—Let
be integers. Define a partial flag to be a nested collection
of subspaces of
such that
for all
.
Define the associated Schubert variety
to be the collection of all
dimensional subspaces
such that
.
Proof
Proof
The
case.
Let
, and any
, it remains to show that
To show this, we construct an orthonormal set of vectors
such that
. Then
Since
, we pick any unit
. Next, since
, we pick any unit
that is perpendicular to
, and so on.
The
case.
For any such sequence of subspaces
, we must find some
such that
Now we prove this by induction.
The
case is the Courant-Fischer theorem. Assume now
.
If
, then we can apply induction. Let
. We construct a partial flag within
from the intersection of
with
.
We begin by picking a
-dimensional subspace
, which exists by counting dimensions. This has codimension
within
.
Then we go down by one space, to pick a
-dimensional subspace
. This still exists. Etc. Now since
, apply the induction hypothesis, there exists some
such that Now
is the
-th eigenvalue of
orthogonally projected down to
. By Cauchy interlacing theorem,
. Since
, we’re done.
If
, then we perform a similar construction. Let
. If
, then we can induct. Otherwise, we construct a partial flag sequence
By induction, there exists some
, such that thus
And it remains to find some
such that
.
If
, then any
would work. Otherwise, if
, then any
would work, and so on. If none of these work, then it means
, contradiction.
This has some corollaries:[1]: 44
Extremal partial trace—
Corollary—The sum
is a convex function, and
is concave.
(Schur-Horn inequality) for any subset of indices.
Equivalently, this states that the diagonal vector of
is majorized by its eigenspectrum.
Schatten-norm Hölder inequality—Given Hermitian
and Hölder pair
,
Proof
Proof
WLOG,
is diagonalized, then we need to show
By the standard Hölder inequality, it suffices to show
By the Schur-Horn inequality, the diagonals of
are majorized by the eigenspectrum of
, and since the map
is symmetric and convex, it is Schur-convex.
Counterexample in the non-Hermitian case
Let N be the nilpotent matrix

Define the Rayleigh quotient
exactly as above in the Hermitian case. Then it is easy to see that the only eigenvalue of N is zero, while the maximum value of the Rayleigh quotient is 1/2. That is, the maximum value of the Rayleigh quotient is larger than the maximum eigenvalue.
Applications
Min-max principle for singular values
The singular values {σk} of a square matrix M are the square roots of the eigenvalues of M*M (equivalently MM*). An immediate consequence of the first equality in the min-max theorem is:

Similarly,

Here
denotes the kth entry in the decreasing sequence of the singular values, so that
.
Cauchy interlacing theorem
Let A be a symmetric n × n matrix. The m × m matrix B, where m ≤ n, is called a compression of A if there exists an orthogonal projection P onto a subspace of dimension m such that PAP* = B. The Cauchy interlacing theorem states:
- Theorem. If the eigenvalues of A are α1 ≤ ... ≤ αn, and those of B are β1 ≤ ... ≤ βj ≤ ... ≤ βm, then for all j ≤ m,

This can be proven using the min-max principle. Let βi have corresponding eigenvector bi and Sj be the j dimensional subspace Sj = span{b1, ..., bj}, then

According to first part of min-max, αj ≤ βj. On the other hand, if we define Sm−j+1 = span{bj, ..., bm}, then

where the last inequality is given by the second part of min-max.
When n − m = 1, we have αj ≤ βj ≤ αj+1, hence the name interlacing theorem.
Lidskii's inequality
Lidskii inequality—If
then
Proof
Proof
The second is the negative of the first. The first is by Wielandt minimax.
Note that
. In other words,
where
means majorization. By the Schur convexity theorem, we then have
p-Wielandt-Hoffman inequality—
where
stands for the p-Schatten norm.
Compact operators
Let A be a compact, Hermitian operator on a Hilbert space H. Recall that the spectrum of such an operator (the set of eigenvalues) is a set of real numbers whose only possible cluster point is zero.
It is thus convenient to list the positive eigenvalues of A as

where entries are repeated with multiplicity, as in the matrix case. (To emphasize that the sequence is decreasing, we may write
.)
When H is infinite-dimensional, the above sequence of eigenvalues is necessarily infinite.
We now apply the same reasoning as in the matrix case. Letting Sk ⊂ H be a k dimensional subspace, we can obtain the following theorem.
- Theorem (Min-Max). Let A be a compact, self-adjoint operator on a Hilbert space H, whose positive eigenvalues are listed in decreasing order ... ≤ λk ≤ ... ≤ λ1. Then:

A similar pair of equalities hold for negative eigenvalues.
Proof
Let S' be the closure of the linear span
.
The subspace S' has codimension k − 1. By the same dimension count argument as in the matrix case, S' ∩ Sk has positive dimension. So there exists x ∈ S' ∩ Sk with
. Since it is an element of S' , such an x necessarily satisfy

Therefore, for all Sk

But A is compact, therefore the function f(x) = (Ax, x) is weakly continuous. Furthermore, any bounded set in H is weakly compact. This lets us replace the infimum by minimum:

So

Because equality is achieved when
,

This is the first part of min-max theorem for compact self-adjoint operators.
Analogously, consider now a (k − 1)-dimensional subspace Sk−1, whose the orthogonal complement is denoted by Sk−1⊥. If S' = span{u1...uk},

So

This implies

where the compactness of A was applied. Index the above by the collection of k-1-dimensional subspaces gives

Pick Sk−1 = span{u1, ..., uk−1} and we deduce

Self-adjoint operators
The min-max theorem also applies to (possibly unbounded) self-adjoint operators.[2][3] Recall the essential spectrum is the spectrum without isolated eigenvalues of finite multiplicity.
Sometimes we have some eigenvalues below the essential spectrum, and we would like to approximate the eigenvalues and eigenfunctions.
- Theorem (Min-Max). Let A be self-adjoint, and let
be the eigenvalues of A below the essential spectrum. Then
.
If we only have N eigenvalues and hence run out of eigenvalues, then we let
(the bottom of the essential spectrum) for n>N, and the above statement holds after replacing min-max with inf-sup.
- Theorem (Max-Min). Let A be self-adjoint, and let
be the eigenvalues of A below the essential spectrum. Then
.
If we only have N eigenvalues and hence run out of eigenvalues, then we let
(the bottom of the essential spectrum) for n > N, and the above statement holds after replacing max-min with sup-inf.
The proofs[2][3] use the following results about self-adjoint operators:
- Theorem. Let A be self-adjoint. Then
for
if and only if
.[2]: 77
- Theorem. If A is self-adjoint, then
and
.[2]: 77
See also
References
- ^ a b Tao, Terence (2012). Topics in random matrix theory. Graduate studies in mathematics. Providence, R.I: American Mathematical Society. ISBN 978-0-8218-7430-1.
- ^ a b c d G. Teschl, Mathematical Methods in Quantum Mechanics (GSM 99) https://www.mat.univie.ac.at/~gerald/ftp/book-schroe/schroe.pdf
- ^ a b Lieb; Loss (2001). Analysis. GSM. Vol. 14 (2nd ed.). Providence: American Mathematical Society. ISBN 0-8218-2783-9.
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