The realizability problem for the values of the length function of quasi-commuting matrix pairs (Q308672)

Let \(M_{n}(F)\) be the algebra of \(n\times n\) matrices over an arbitrary field \(F\). If \(S\) is a finite subset of \(M_{n}(F)\) define \(\mathcal{L}_{t}(S)\) (\(t=0,1,\dots, d\)) to be the subspace spanned by all products \(s_{1}s_{2}\cdots s_{k}\) (each \(s_{i}\in S\)) with \(k\leq t\). Let \(S\) be a finite subset of \(M_{n}(F)\) and \(\mathcal{A}\) be the subalgebra which \(S\) generates. The length \(\ell(S)\) of \(S\) is the least \(t\) such that \(\mathcal{A=L}_{t}(S)\) and the length \(\ell(\mathcal{A)}\) of \(\mathcal{A}\) is the maximum of \(\ell(S)\) as \(S\) runs over the finite sets of generators of \(\mathcal{A}\). In an earlier paper [Linear Algebra Appl. 430, No. 7, 1790--1805 (2009; Zbl 1160.13016)], the authors used this length function in a classification of commutative matrix algebras. A pair of matrices \(A\), \(B\) in \(M_{n}(F)\) is called quasi-commuting if \(AB=\omega BA\) for some scalar \(\omega\). The present paper investigates the question of what values \(\ell(S)\) can take when \(S\) is a quasi-commuting pair and what length an algebra \(\mathcal{A}\) with such a generating set can have. For example it is shown that if \(n=5\), then one of the following holds: (i) \(\ell(S)=8\), \(\omega\) is a primitive \(5\)th root of \(1\) and \(AB\) is not nilpotent; (ii) \(\ell(S)=6\), \(\omega\) is a primitive \(4\)th root of \(1\) and \(AB\) is not nilpotent; or (iii) \(\ell(S)\leq4\). Similar results are proved for \(n=6\) (the authors state that corresponding results for \(n\leq4\) appear in a paper under preparation). These results lead to a partial classification of algebras generated by a quasi-commuting pair.