Proportion of cyclic matrices in maximal reducible matrix algebras (Q1946112)

A matrix over a finite field is cyclic if its characteristic polynomial and its minimal polynomial are the same, and availability of cyclic matrices is useful in several algorithms for testing irreducibility of matrix algebras. In [\textit{P. M. Neumann} and the last author, J. Lond. Math. Soc., II. Ser. 52, No. 2, 263--284 (1995; Zbl 0839.15011)], it was shown that the proportion of cyclic matrices inside the set \(M\) of all \(n\times n\) matrices over a finite field with \(q\) elements is \(1-q^{-3}+O(q^{-4})\) where the implicit constant is uniform over \(n\) and \(q\). The authors' aim is to estimate the density of cyclic matrices inside certain subalgebras of \(M\). Let \(\mathbb F\) be a finite field with \(q\) elements, and let \(U\) be a subspace of \(\mathbb F^n\) of dimension \(1\leq r\leq n-1\). The main result in the paper states that if \(N\) is the set of all \(n \times n\) matrices over \(\mathbb F\) that maps \(U\) into itself then the density of cyclic matrices in \(N\) is \(1 - q^{-2} +O(q^{-3})\) where the implicit constant is uniform over \(n,q,r\). The special cases \(r=1\) and \(r=n-1\) of this estimate were known from a paper of \textit{J. Fulman} [J. Algebra 250, No. 2, 731--756 (2002; Zbl 1008.20042)].