Primitive normal matrices and covering numbers of finite groups. (Q2484487)

A square matrix \(M\) over the real number field is called nonnegative (denoted by \(M\geq 0\)) if all its entries are nonnegative. The matrix is called positive (denoted by \(M>0\)) if all its entries are positive. A nonnegative \(n\times n\) matrix \(M\) is called primitive if \(M^s>0\) for some positive integer \(s\). The smallest such \(s\) is called the primitivity index of \(M\) and is denoted by \(\gamma(M)\). Matrices of normal type are matrices \(M\) such that \(MM^T\) and \(M^TM\) have the same zero entries. The authors show, if \(M\) is an \(n\times n\) primitive matrix of normal type and if \(m\) is the degree of the minimal polynomial of \(M\), then \(\gamma(M)\leq(\lceil\tfrac n2\rceil+1)(m-1)\). This result is then applied to obtain, under certain assumptions, the estimates \(\text{cn}(C)\leq(\lceil\tfrac k2\rceil+1)(m(C)-1)\) and \(\text{ccn}(\Theta)\leq(\lceil\tfrac k2\rceil+1)(m(\Theta)-1)\) for the covering number \(\text{cn}(C)\) of a conjugacy class \(C\) of a finite group \(G\) and the character covering number \(\text{ccn}(\Theta)\) of a character \(\Theta\) of \(G\). Here \(k\), \(m(C)\), and \(m(\Theta)\) are numbers that are related to \(G\), \(C\), and \(\Theta\). Better estimates are given for those nonabelian finite simple groups in which every element is a commutator.