Potentially nilpotent and spectrally arbitrary even cycle sign patterns (Q864553)

A real \(n \times n\) matrix \(A=(a_{ij})\) has an associated digraph \(D(A)\) with vertices \(1,2, \ldots,n\) and an arc \((i,j)\) from vertex \(i\) to vertex \(j\) if and only if \(a_{ij} \neq 0\). If \(a_{ii} \neq 0\), then the simple cycle \((i,i)\) of length 1 in \(D(A)\) is called a loop at vertex \(i\). Matrix \(A\) also has an associated sign pattern (matrix) \({\mathcal S}_n=(s_{ij})\) with \(s_{ij}=\text{sgn}(a_{ij})\) for all \(i\),\(j\), where \(\text{sgn}(a_{ij})=+,-,0\) according as \(a_{ij}\) is positive, negative, zero, respectively. The authors denote by \(Q({\mathcal S}_n)\) the set of all \(n \times n\) real matrices with associated sign pattern \({\mathcal S}_n\). A sign pattern \({\mathcal S}_n\) is a spectrally arbitrary pattern: if given any real monic polynomial \(p_n(x)\) of degree \(n\), there exists a real matrix \(A \in Q({\mathcal S}_n)\) with characteristic polynomial \(p_n(x)\). A sign pattern \({\mathcal S}_n\) is potentially nilpotent if there exists a matrix \(A \in Q({\mathcal S}_n)\) that is nilpotent, i.e., the characteristic polynomial of \(A\) is \(x^n\). In this paper, the authors introduce a family \({\mathcal C}_n\) of particular sign patterns that have a cycle of every even length. By using algebraic, graph theoretic techniques and a Jacobian argument, they show that this family is spectrally arbitrary. Moreover, any superpattern of \({\mathcal C}_n\) is also spectrally arbitrary. In addition, the authors identify a subpattern that is potentially nilpotent but not a spectrally arbitrary pattern and they conjecture that \({\mathcal C}_n\), \(n=2k\), \(k \geq 3\), is a minimal spectrally arbitrary pattern.