Products of cyclic conjugacy classes in the groups \(\text{PSL}(n,F)\) (Q1208300)

Let \(F\) be an arbitrary field and let \(G\) be the group \(\text{PSL}(n,F)\) where \(n \geq 3\). A conjugacy class \(C\) of \(G\) is called cyclic [simple] if every element in \(C\) is the image of a cyclic [diagonalizable] matrix in \(\text{SL}(n,F)\). The author studies products of cyclic conjugacy classes in \(\text{PSL}(n,F)\) and related matrix factorizations. First, he proves the following factorization result: Let \(M\in GL(n,F)\), \(n \geq 3\), be a nonscalar matrix, and assume \(A_ 1, A_ 2, A_ 3 \in \text{GL}(n,F)\) are cyclic matrices with \(\text{det }M=(\text{det }A_ 1)(\text{det }A_ 2)(\text{det }A_ 3)\). Then there are matrices \(A_ i' \in \text{GL}(n,F)\), \(i = 1, 2, 3\), where each \(A_ i'\) is similar to \(A_ i\) under a matrix of determinant 1, such that \(M = A_ 1' A_ 2' A_ 3'\). This theorem is used to show the following assertion on cyclic conjugacy classes in \(G = \text{PSL}(n,F)\), \(n \geq 3\): Let \(C_ 1\), \(C_ 2\), \(C_ 3\) be cyclic conjugacy classes of \(G\). Then \(C_ 1 C_ 2 C_ 3 \supset G - \{1_ G\}\). If one of these classes is not simple and has an eigenvalue in \(F\) which is not of multiplicity \(n\), then \(G = C_ 1 C_ 2 C_ 3\). For an algebraically closed field \(F\), one has: Assume \(C_ 1\), \(C_ 2\) are cyclic conjugacy classes of \(G = \text{PSL}(n,F)\), \(n \geq 3\). Then \(G = C_ 1 C_ 2\) if and only if \(C_ 1 = C_ 2^{-1}\). The paper includes also some generalizations of these results. For a given nonscalar matrix \(M \in \text{GL}(n,F)\) factorizations of \(M\) into a product of two or three cyclic matrices, each lying in a prescribed conjugacy class of \(\text{GL}(n,F)\) or \(SL(n,F)\), are discussed.