Positive commutators and collections of operators (Q2914872)

A collection \({\mathcal C}\) of real or complex \(n \times n\) matrices is called decomposable if there exists a permutation matrix \(S\) such that the collection \(S {\mathcal C} S^{-1}\) has a block upper-triangular form. If the matrix \(S\) can be chosen to be a permutation matrix, then the collection \({\mathcal C}\) is said to be completely decomposable. In the paper, the conditions under which a collection of completely decomposable matrices of constant-sign (nonnegative) is completely decomposable are given. Some conditions implying that a given operator on a Riesz space is necessarily scalar are also found.