Rigid relations in \(\text{GL}_2F\) (Q1808946)

A relation \(g_1\cdots g_n=1\) in a group \(G\) is rigid if and only if for every relation \(g_1'\cdots g_n'=1\) in \(G\), where \(g_i'\) is similar to \(g_i\), there exists \(h\in G\) such that \(g_i'=hg_i h^{-1}\) (\(1\leq i\leq n\)). Let \(F\) be a field. The authors prove that, when \(\text{card}(F)>3\), a relation \(g_1\cdots g_n=1\) in \(\text{GL}_2(F)\) is not rigid if and only if either (a) the relation contains more than 3 nonscalar matrices or (b) it has exactly 3 nonscalar matrices with a common eigenvector over \(F\). Similar results are proved for the cases \(\text{card}(F)=2\) or~3.