On positive matrices (Q5905518)

The converse to the Perron-Frobenius theorem for positive matrices in the sense of characterizing abstractly the linear maps that can be represented by a nonnegative matrix is not yet completely solved. One direction of research is to study when a sequence of positive numbers, known as positive rational sequence in automata theory, is the image under some fixed positive form of the orbit of a positive vector under the action of a positive matrix. \textit{M. Soittola}'s theorem [Theor. Comput. Sci. 2, 317-322 (1976; Zbl 0341.68056)] answered this problem and characterized positive rational sequences among those satisfying some recurrence relations. The author presents, directly making use of matrices instead of rational expressions, a simpler proof of Soittola's theorem and hence clarifies the relationship between Soittola's result and other results such as those of \textit{D. Handelman} [J. Oper. Theory 6, 55-74 (1981; Zbl 0495.06011); Ergodic Theory Dyn. Syst. 7, 193-196 (1987; Zbl 0629.15013)] on matrices conjugate to a positive one. He discusses the connection with a theorem of \textit{D. Lind} [ibid. 4, 283-300 (1984; Zbl 0534.58030)], characterizing the entropies of subshifts of finite type.