Achievable spectral radii of symplectic Perron-Frobenius matrices (Q416764)

A real matrix \(M\) is said to be Perron-Frobenius if each of its entries is nonnegative and \(M^{k}\) has strictly positive entries for some \(k.\) These matrices, among other, play an important role in the study of pseudo-Anosov surface automorphisms; for instance a pseudo-Anosov surface automorphism \(\phi\) has associated to it an algebraic unit \(\lambda_{\phi}\) called the dilatation of \(\phi.\) It is known that in many cases \(\lambda_{\phi}\) appears as the spectral radius of a Perron-Frobenius matrix preserving a symplectic form \(L.\) In the present paper the author investigates which algebraic units could potentially appear as dilatations of a pseudo-Anosov automorphism. Recall that a real number \(\lambda\) is called an algebraic unit if \(\lambda\) is the root of a polynomial which is irreducible over the integers and of the form \(p(t)=t^{g}+a_{g}t^{g-1}+\dots+a_{2}t\pm1.\) If also \(|\lambda|>1,\) \(\lambda\) has algebraic multiplicity 1, and for all other roots \(\omega\) of \(p(t)\) we have \(|\lambda+\lambda^{-1}|>|\omega+\omega^{-1}|\) we will say \(\lambda\) is a Perron unit. The main theorem of the paper states that, if \(\lambda\) is a Perron unit, and if \(L\) is any integral symplectic form then for some \(n\in\mathbb{N},\) \(\lambda^{n}\) is the spectral radius of an integral Perron-Frobenius matrix that preserves the symplectic form \(L.\) Note also that the proof of the theorem is constructive enough that it is possible to find a matrix for \(\lambda^{n}\) with the assistance of a computer.