An explicit counterexample to the Lagarias-Wang finiteness conjecture (Q633590)

The joint spectral radius of a finite set of real \(d\times d\) matrices is defined to be the maximum possible exponential rate of growth of long products of matrices drawn from that set. A set of matrices is said to have the finiteness property if there exists a periodic product which achieves this maximal rate of growth. \textit{J. C. Lagarias} and \textit{Y. Wang} [Linear Algebra Appl. 214, 17--42 (1995; Zbl 0818.15007)] conjectured that every finite set of real \(d\times d\) matrices satisfies the finiteness property. Some authors proved that counterexamples to the finiteness conjecture exist. The purpose of this paper is to resolve this issue by giving the first completely explicit description of a counterexample to the Lagarias-Wang finiteness conjecture. Namely, for the set \[ A_{\alpha_*}:= \left\{\begin{pmatrix} 1 & 1\\ 0 & 1\end{pmatrix},\;\alpha_*\begin{pmatrix} 1 & 0\\ 1 & 1\end{pmatrix}\right\}, \] the authors give an explicit value of \(\alpha_*\) such that \(A_{\alpha_*}\) does not satisfy the finiteness property.