Factorization of singular integer matrices (Q2469532)

It is known that every singular integer \(n\times n\) matrix can be factored as a product of integer idempotent matrices and \textit{T. J. Laffey} [Linear Algebra Appl. 120, 81--93 (1989; Zbl 0677.15005)] has shown that when \(n>2\) at most \(36n+217\) idempotent factors are required. The present authors improve Laffey's bound to \(3n+1.\) A critical step in the proof is the following. An \(n\times n\) integer matrix is called pseudo unimodular of rank \(m\) if it has the form \(\binom{[c]}{c}\) where \(B\) is \(m\times n\) and for some \(m\times n\) integer matrix \(C\) we have \(BC^{\top}=I_{m}\). It is proved that every pseudo unimodular \(n\times n\) matrix with \(n>2\) can be written in the form \(EP_{1}P_{2}P_{3}\) where \(P_{1},P_{2}\) and \(P_{3}\) are integer idempotent matrices and \(E\) is pseudo unimodular with zeros in its last column.