Complexified cones. Spectral gaps and variational principles

We consider contractions of complexified real cones, as recently introduced by Rugh in [Rugh10]. Dubois [Dub09] gave optimal conditions to determine if a matrix contracts a canonical complex cone. First we generalize his results to the case of complex operators on a Banach space and give precise conditions for the contraction and an improved estimate of the size of the associated spectral gap. We then prove a variational formula for the leading eigenvalue similar to the Collatz-Wielandt formula for a real cone contraction. Morally, both cases boil down to the study of suitable collections of 2 by 2 matrices and their contraction properties on the Riemann sphere.