A New Proof of Hopf's Inequality Using a Complex Extension of the Hilbert Metric

Abstract: It is well known from the Perron-Frobenius theory that the spectral gap of a positive square matrix is positive. In this paper, we give a more quantitative characterization of the spectral gap. More specifically, using a complex extension of the Hilbert metric, we show that the so-called spectral ratio of a positive square matrix is upper bounded by its Birkhoff contraction coefficient, which in turn yields a lower bound on its spectral gap.