In this article, the question of whether the Löwner partial order on the positive cone of an operator algebra is determined by the norm of any arbitrary Kubo–Ando mean is studied. The question was affirmatively answered for certain classes of Kubo–Ando means, yet the general case was left as an open problem. We here give a complete answer to this question, by showing that the norm of every symmetric Kubo–Ando mean is order-determining, i.e., if $A,B\in \mathcal B(H)^{++}$ satisfy $\Vert A\sigma X\Vert \le \Vert B\sigma X\Vert $ for every $X\in \mathcal {A}^{{++}}$, where $\mathcal A$ is the C*-subalgebra generated by $B-A$ and I, then $A\le B$.

For an n-tuple of positive invertible operators on a Hilbert space, we present some variants of Ando–Hiai type inequalities for deformed means from an n-variable operator mean by an operator mean, which is related to the information monotonicity of a certain unital positive linear map. As an application, we investigate the monotonicity of the power mean from the deformed mean in terms of the generalized Kantorovich constants under the operator order. Moreover, we improve the norm inequality for the operator power means related to the Log-Euclidean mean in terms of the Specht ratio.

Let A, B be non-negative bounded self-adjoint operators, and let a be a real number such that 0 < a < 1. The Loewner–Heinz inequality means that A ≤ B implies that Aa ≦ Ba. We show that A ≤ B if and only if (A + λ)a ≦ (B + λ)a for every λ > 0. We then apply this to the geometric mean and spectral order.