Random matrix products and applications to cellular automata (Q2479617)

The paper under review deals with Lyapunov exponents of products of i.i.d. random matrices which take their values in a finite set of \(m\times m\) matrices with complex coefficients, generating a monoid that contains a matrix of rank 1. It provides an explicit formula for the top exponent in terms of a convergent series. A generalization is considered in which the i.i.d. sequence is replaced by a Markov chain. The result on the Lyapunov exponent allows an asymptotic rate estimate for the nonzero coefficients of \(n\)th powers of polynomials with integer coefficients as \(n\to\infty.\)