Several numerical radius inequalities are studied by developing an extension of the Buzano's inequality. It is shown that if $T$ is a bounded linear operator on a complex Hilbert space, then \begin{ eqnarray*} w^n(T) &\leq& \frac{ 1}{ 2^{ n-1}} w(T^n)+ \sum_{ k=1}^{ n-1} \frac{ 1}{ 2^{ k}} \left\|T^k \right\| \left\|T \right\|^{ n-k}, \end{ eqnarray*} for every positive integer $n\geq 2.$ This is a non-trivial improvement of the classical inequality $w(T)\leq \|T\|.$ The above inequality gives an estimation for the numerical radius of the nilpotent operators, i.e., if $T^n=0$ for some least positive integer $n\geq 2$, then \begin{ eqnarray*} w(T) &\leq& \left(\sum_{ k=1}^{ n-1} \frac{ 1}{ 2^{ k}} \left\|T^k \right\| \left\|T \right\|^{ n-k}\right)^{ 1/n} \leq \left( 1- \frac{ 1}{ 2^{ n-1}}\right)^{ 1/n} \|T\|. \end{ eqnarray*} Also, we deduce a reverse inequality for the numerical radius power inequality $w(T^n)\leq w^n(T)$. We show that if $\|T\|\leq 1$, then \begin{ eqnarray*} w^n(T) &\leq& \frac{ 1}{ 2^{ n-1}} w(T^n)+ 1- \frac{ 1}{ 2^{ n-1}}, \end{ eqnarray*} for every positive integer $n\geq 2.$ This inequality is sharp.
Categories: math.FA