A gap result for the norms of semigroups of matrices (Q556878)

Let \(\| \cdot\| \) be a matrix norm on \(M_d({\mathbb C})\) and \({\mathcal A}=\{A_1,\dots, A_e\}\) be a finite set of matrices in~\(M_d({\mathbb C})\). Set \[ m_n({\mathcal A})=\max _{1\leqslant i_1,\dots,i_n \leqslant e} \| A_{i_1}\cdots A_{i_n}\| . \] The author shows that there is a gap in the possible growth of~\(m_n({\mathcal A})\). The main result states: {Let \({\mathcal A}\) be given. Then either there is some constant \(c>1\) such that \(m_n({\mathcal A})>c^n\) for all \(n\) sufficiently large, or \(m_n({\mathcal A})=O(n^{d-1})\). Moreover, \(m_n({\mathcal A})=O(n^{d-1})\) if and only if the eigenvalues of every matrix in the semigroup generated by~\({\mathcal A}\) are all on or inside the unit circle}. As a consequence of this result, it follows, for example, that it is impossible to find a set of matrices~\({\mathcal A}\) with \(m_n({\mathcal A})\sim \exp (\sqrt n)\).