Covering singular linear semi-groups (Q1940099)

Let \(V\) be an \(n\)-dimensional vector space over a field \(K\). For \(\pi\in \mathrm{End}(V)\) let \(\nu(\pi)\) denote the nullity of \(\pi\). For a similarity class \(\Omega\subseteq \mathrm{End}(V)\) let \(\nu(\Omega)\) denote the nullity of the elements of \(\Omega\). The following result is known: If \(\pi\) and \(\Omega\) satisfy \(1 \leq \nu(\Omega) \leq \nu(\pi)\), then \(\pi\) is a product of elements of \(\Omega\). However, not much is known about the number of factors. The main result of this paper is: Let \(|K|\geq 4\) and let \(k\) be an integer with \(k \geq n\) and \(k \geq 4\). If \(\Omega\subseteq \mathrm{End}(V)\) is a similarity class with \(\nu(\Omega) = 1\), then \(\pi\in\Omega k\) for every singular \(\pi\in \mathrm{End}(V)\). This result can be interpreted in terms of covering numbers of singular semigroups.