The finiteness conjecture for the generalized spectral radius of a set of matrices (Q1345501)

Let \(\Sigma = \{A_ 1, A_ 2, \dots\}\) be a set of \(n \times n\) matrices, \(\rho (A_ j)\) the spectral radius of \(A_ j\), \(\overline \rho_ k (\Sigma) = \sup \rho (A_ 1 \dots A_ k)\), \(\overline \rho (\Sigma) = \lim_{k \to \infty} \sup \overline \rho_ k (\Sigma)^{1/k}\) the ``generalized spectral radius'' [cf. \textit{I. Doubechies} and \textit{J. C. Lagarias}, ibid. 162, 227-263 (1992; Zbl 0746.15015)], \(\widehat \rho_ k (\Sigma) = \sup \| A_ 1 \dots A_ k \|\), \(\widehat \rho (\Sigma) = \lim_{k \to \infty} \sup \widehat \rho_ k (\Sigma)^{1/k}\) the ``joint spectral radius'' [cf. \textit{G.-C. Rota} and \textit{G. Strang}, Nederl. Akad. Wet., Proc., Ser. A 63, 379-381 (1960; Zbl 0095.097)]. Then \(\widehat \rho = \overline \rho\) for a finite set \(\Sigma\) [cf. \textit{M. A. Berger} and \textit{Y. Wang}, Linear Algebra Appl. 166, 21-27 (1992; reviewed above)]. Finiteness conjecture (FC): If \(\Sigma\) is finite, there is a \(k\) such that \(\widehat \rho (\Sigma) = \overline \rho (\Sigma) = \overline \rho_ k (\Sigma)^{1/k}\). Normed finiteness conjecture (NFC) for a given operator norm: If \(\Sigma\) is finite and \(\| A_ j \|_{\text{op}} \leq 1\), then either \(\widehat \rho (\Sigma) < 1\) or \(\widehat \rho (\Sigma) = \overline \rho (\Sigma) = \overline \rho_ k (\Sigma)^{1/k} = 1\) for some \(k\). Results in this paper: FC is true iff NFC is true for all operator norms. NFC is proved for a relatively large class of operator norms. For polytope norms and for the Euclidean norm, explicit upper bounds are given for the least \(k\) having \(\overline \rho (\Sigma) = \overline \rho_ k (\Sigma)^{1/k}\), implying upper bounds for generalized critical exponents for these norms.