Lifespan in a primitive Boolean linear dynamical system (Q907226)

Summary: Let \(\mathcal F\) be a set of \(k\) by \(k\) nonnegative matrices such that every ``long'' product of elements of \(\mathcal F\) is positive. \textit{J. E. Cohen} and \textit{P. H. Sellers} [Linear Algebra Appl. 47, 185--192 (1982; Zbl 0495.15013)] proved that, then, every such product of length \(2^k-2\) over \(\mathcal F\) must be positive. They suggested to investigate the minimum size of such \(\mathcal F\) for which there exists a non-positive product of length \(2^k-3\) over \(\mathcal F\) and they constructed one example of size \(2^k-2\). We construct one of size \(k\) and further discuss relevant basic problems in the framework of Boolean linear dynamical systems. We also formulate several primitivity properties for general discrete dynamical systems.