On Lewin and Vitek's conjecture about the exponent set of primitive matrices (Q1092140)

\textit{M. Lewin} and \textit{Y. Vitek} [Ill. J. Math. 25, 87-98 (1981; Zbl 0457.15014)] conjecture that every integer \(\leq [w_ n]+1=[(n^ 2- 2n+2)]+1\) is the exponent of some \(n\times n\) primitive matrix. In this paper we prove that this conjecture is true except for \(n=11\). The problem of determining the exponent set \(E_ n\) is completely solved.