A problem on integer matrices (Q1124654)

The paper develops basic structure theory of F-matrices. An \(n\times b\) matrix A with nonnegative integer entries is called F-matrix if \(AJ=Jb,\) \(JA=nJ\) and \(AA^ T=bI+yJ,\) where J is the all-1 matrix, I is usual \(n\times n\) identity matrix. Two F-matrices \(A_ 1\) and \(A_ 2\) are called equivalent if \(A_ 1\) can be obtained from \(A_ 2\) by row and column perturbations. An F- matrix A is called indecomposable if it is not equivalent to a matrix \((A_ 1,A_ 2)\) for some F-matrices \(A_ 1\) and \(A_ 2\). It is proved that there exist only finitely many indecomposable F-matrices with a given number of rows. For \(n=2\) and \(n=3\) the full list of indecomposable inequivalent F-matrices is given. Also various necessary conditions for the existence of an F-matrix are discussed.