A combinatorial converse to the Perron-Frobenius theorem (Q1813899)

An \(n\times n\) matrix whose entries are the formal symbols +, -, 0 is called a sign-pattern matrix. Associated with a sign-pattern matrix \(A=(a^{ij})\) is the class of all real matrices \(B=(b^{ij})\) such that \(\hbox{sgn }b^{ij}=a^{ij}\); call this the sign-pattern class of \(A\). A sign-pattern requires (allows) the Perron property if every (some) matrix with that sign-pattern has its spectral radius among its eigenvalues. It is proved in this paper that a matrix \(A\) requires the Perron property if and only if all simple cycles of \(A\) are nonnegative. Also, a large class of patterns that allow the Perron property is identified, but a complete characterization is left as an open problem.