Crawford numbers of powers of a matrix (Q603154)

Let \(A\) be an \(n\times n\) matrix with spectrum \(\sigma(A)=\{\lambda_1\leq \lambda_2\leq \cdots \leq \lambda_n\}\) and numerical range \(W(A)=\{x^*Ax : x\in \mathbb{C}^n, \|x\|=1\}\). The Crawford number of \(A\) is \(c(A)=\text{dist}(0, W(A))\) and the generalized Crawford number of \(A\) is \(C(A)=\text{dist}(0, \partial W(A))\). The authors prove that (i) \(\overline{\lim}_k c(A^k)^{1/k}\) is either \(0\) or \(\text{dist}(0, \sigma(A))\) and (ii) \(\overline{\lim}_k C(A^k)^{1/k}\) equals \(|\lambda_j|\) for some \(1\leq j\leq n\). The exact formula when \(n=2\) is given. The paper ends with a characterization of those \(A\) satisfying \(\overline{\lim}_k C(A^k)^{1/k}=0\).