Positive eigenvalues and two-letter generalized words

necessarily has positive eigenvalues. This is known to be the case when N=1 and has been studied in case all exponents are positive by two of the authors. When the exponent signs are mixed, however, the situation is quite different (even for 2-by-2 matrices), and this is the focus of the present work.

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A so-called generalized word of class \(N\) in two letters \(A\) and \(B\) is defined as an expression \(W(A,B)=A^{\alpha_1}B^{\beta_1}A^{\alpha_2} B^{\beta_2}\dots A^{\alpha_N}B^{\beta_N}\), where the exponents \(\alpha_1, \beta_1,\dots,\alpha_N,\beta_N\) are nonzero real numbers. Here, the eigenvalues of words \(W(A,B)\) are studied when \(A\) and \(B\) are replaced by positive definite \(n \times n\) matrices. It is of special interest to know when words \(W(A,B)\) have positive eigenvalues. NEWLINENEWLINENEWLINEIn the previously studied case when \(N=1\) and all exponents were positive the eigenvalues were positive. In this work this case is extended on the situation when the exponents have mixed signs. In several theorems conditions on \(A\), \(B\) (e. g. multiplicity of eigenvalues) and on a sign pattern of exponent sequences for the cases \(n=2,3\) and arbitrary \(n\) for \(W(A,B)\) to have positive eigenvalues are found.

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