A Grassmann formula for the spectral order of matrices

For Hermitian matrices $A$ and $B$, we prove that $(A\text{join}B)\oplus (A\text{meet}B)$ is unitarily equivalent to $A\oplus B$, where the join and meet are taken in Olson’s spectral order. Taking traces answers a question of Bourin and Lee: for positive semidefinite matrices, $\text{Tr}(A\text{join}B)=\text{Tr}(A+B)$ if and only if $A\text{meet}B=0$. Iterating the direct-sum identity gives a trace formula for a finite family of positive matrices. The trace of the spectral supremum equals the trace of the sum precisely when the ranges form an algebraic direct sum. For each fixed $1<p<\mathrm{\infty }$, the spectral supremum and the sum have equal Schatten $p$-norms if and only if the ranges are pairwise orthogonal. Finally we establish an elegant formula for the Frobenius inner product and the spectral order.