Rings of invariants of \(2\times 2\) matrices in positive characteristic (Q1874307)

It is shown that the ring of simultaneous conjugation invariants of \(m\)-tuples of \(2\times 2\) matrices over an arbitrary infinite base field is Cohen-Macaulay. The proof uses standard facts from the theory of modules with good filtration and on determinantal rings, but is elementary otherwise. As the authors point out, in odd characteristic this result is due to \textit{V. B. Mehta} and \textit{T. R. Ramadas} [Ann. Math. (2) 144, 269-313 (1996; Zbl 0880.14006)], and a recent result of \textit{M. Hashimoto} [Math. Z. 236, No. 3, 605-623 (2001; Zbl 1034.13007)] implies that the ring of \(n\times n\) matrix invariants is Cohen-Macaulay for all \(n\) (in characteristic zero, this follows from the Hochster-Roberts theorem).