Characterization of primitive extremal matrices (Q1180024)

A nonnegative square matrix \(A\) is primitive if there exists some positive integer \(k\) such that \(A^ k>0\). The least \(k\) is called the exponent of \(A\), denoted by \(\gamma(A)\). Let \(D(n,d)=\{A:A \hbox{ is an } n\times n \hbox{ primitive matrix with } d \hbox{ positive diagonal elements}\}\). It is well known that \(\gamma(A)\leq 2n-d-2\) for \(A\in D(n,d)\). Suppose that \(D_ 1(n,d)=\{A\in D(n,d):\gamma(A)=2n-d-2\}\) is the set of extremal matrices in \(D(n,d)\). This paper gives a characterization of the set \(D_ 1(n,d)\).