Powers of Sign Portraits of Real Matrices

The sign portrait S of a real n× n matrix is a matrix over the semiring with elements 0, 1, -1, and , where symbolizes indeterminateness. It is proved that if k is the least positive integer such that all the entries of S ^k are equal to , then k 2n ² – 3n + 2, and this bound is sharp. Bibliography: 6 titles.