Inequalities for Gondran-Minoux rank and idempotent semirings

The rank-sum, rank-product, and rank-union inequalities for Gondran-Minoux rank of matrices over idempotent semirings are considered. We prove these inequalities for matrices over quasi-selective semirings without zero divisors, which include matrices over the max-plus semiring. Moreover, it is shown that the inequalities provide the linear algebraic characterization for the class of quasi-selective semirings. Namely, it is proven that the inequalities hold for matrices over an idempotent semiring S without zero divisors if and only if S is quasi-selective. For any idempotent semiring which is not quasi-selective it is shown that the rank-sum, rank-product, and rank-union inequalities do not hold in general. Also, we provide an example of a selective semiring with zero divisors such that the rank-sum, rank-product, and rank-union inequalities do not hold in general.     

Noncommuting graphs of matrices over semirings

We study diameters and girths of noncommuting graphs of semirings. For a noncommutative semiring that is either multiplicatively or additively cancellative, we find the diameter and the girth of its noncommuting graph and prove that it is Hamiltonian. Moreover, we find diameters and girths of noncommuting graphs of all nilpotent matrices over a semiring, all invertible matrices over a semiring, all noninvertible matrices over a semiring, and the full matrix semiring. In nearly all cases we prove that diameters are less than or equal to 2 and girths are less than or equal to 3, except in the case of 2×2 nilpotent matrices.     

Commuting graphs of matrices over semirings

We calculate diameters and girths of commuting graphs of the set of all nilpotent matrices over a semiring, the group of all invertible matrices over a semiring, and the full matrix semiring.     

The singular linear preservers of non-singular matrices

Given an arbitrary field K, we reduce the determination of the singular endomorphisms f of M_n(K) such that f(GL_n(K))⊂GL_n(K) to the classification of n-dimensional division algebras over K. Our method, which is based upon Dieudonné’s theorem on singular subspaces of M_n(K), also yields a proof for the classical non-singular case.     

Bijective linear maps on semimodules spanned by Boolean matrices of fixed rank

Let M_m,n(B) be the semimodule of all m×n Boolean matrices where B is the Boolean algebra with two elements. Let k be a positive integer such that 2?k?min(m,n). Let B(m,n,k) denote the subsemimodule of M_m,n(B) spanned by the set of all rank k matrices. We show that if T is a bijective linear mapping on B(m,n,k), then there exist permutation matrices P and Q such that T(A)=PAQ for all A∈B(m,n,k) or m=n and T(A)=PA^tQ for all A∈B(m,n,k). This result follows from a more general theorem we prove concerning the structure of linear mappings on B(m,n,k) that preserve both the weight of each matrix and rank one matrices of weight k². Here the weight of a Boolean matrix is the number of its nonzero entries.     

Rank one preservers between spaces of Boolean matrices

In this paper, we characterize (i) linear transformations from one space of Boolean matrices to another that send pairs of distinct rank one elements to pairs of distinct rank one elements and (ii) surjective mappings from one space of Boolean matrices to another that send rank one matrices to rank one matrices and preserve order relation in both directions. Both results are proved in a more general setting of tensor products of two Boolean vector spaces of arbitrary dimension.     

The linear preservers of real diagonalizable matrices

Using a recent result of Bogdanov and Guterman on the linear preservers of pairs of simultaneously diagonalizable matrices, we determine all the automorphisms of the vector space M_n(R) which stabilize the set of diagonalizable matrices. To do so, we investigate the structure of linear subspaces of diagonalizable matrices of M_n(R) with maximal dimension.     

Bases in semilinear spaces over zerosumfree semirings

This paper investigates the cardinality of a basis and the characterizations of a basis in semilinear space of n-dimensional vectors over zerosumfree semirings. First, it discusses the cardinality of a basis and gives some necessary and sufficient conditions that each basis has the same number of elements. Then it presents some conditions that a set of vectors is a basis and that a set of linearly independent vectors can be extended to a basis. In the end, it shows a necessary and sufficient condition that two semilinear spaces are isomorphic.     

Strong linear preservers of rank reverse permutability on triangular matrices

Let F be a field with ∣F∣ > 2 and T_n(F) be the set of all n × n upper triangular matrices, where n ? 2. Let k ? 2 be a given integer. A k-tuple of matrices A₁, …, A_k ∈ T_n(F) is called rank reverse permutable if rank(A₁ A₂ ? A_k) = rank(A_k A_k−1 ? A₁). We characterize the linear maps on T_n(F) that strongly preserve the set of rank reverse permutable matrix k-tuples.     

Invertible and nilpotent matrices over antirings

In this paper, we characterize invertible matrices over an arbitrary commutative antiring S with 1 and find the structure of GL_n(S). We find the number of nilpotent matrices over an entire commutative finite antiring. We prove that every nilpotent n×n matrix over an entire antiring can be written as a sum of ⌈log₂n⌉ square-zero matrices and also find the necessary number of square-zero summands for an arbitrary trace-zero matrix to be expressible as their sum.     

Note on cardinality of bases in semilinear spaces over zerosumfree semirings

A necessary and sufficient condition under which all bases in a semilinear space of n-dimensional vectors over zerosumfree semirings have exactly n elements is established.     

The nullity and rank of linear combinations of idempotent matrices

Baksalary and Baksalary [J.K. Baksalary, O.M. Baksalary, Nonsingularity of linear combinations of idempotent matrices, Linear Algebra Appl. 388 (2004) 25-29] proved that the nonsingularity of P₁ + P₂, where P₁ and P₂ are idempotent matrices, is equivalent to the nonsingularity of any linear combinations c₁P₁ + c₂P₂, where c₁, c₂ ≠ 0 and c₁ + c₂ ≠ 0. In the present note this result is strengthened by showing that the nullity and rank of c₁P₁ + c₂P₂ are constant. Furthermore, a simple proof of the rank formula of Groß and Trenkler [J. Groß, G. Trenkler, Nonsingularity of the difference of two oblique projectors, SIAM J. Matrix Anal. Appl. 21 (1999) 390-395] is obtained.     

Zero-term rank preservers

We obtain characterizations of those linear operators that preserve zero-term rank on the m×n matrices over antinegative semirings. That is, a linear operator T preserves zero-term rank if and only if it has the form T(X)=P(B∘X)Q, where P, Q are permutation matrices and B∘X is the Schur product with B whose entries are all nonzero and not zero-divisors.     

Maximum order-index of matrices over commutative inclines: an answer to an open problem

This paper proves that the maximum order-index of n × n matrices over an arbitrary commutative incline equals (n − 1)² + 1. This is an answer to an open problem “Compute the maximum order-index of a member of M_n(L)”, proposed by Cao, Kim and Roush in a monograph Incline Algebra and Applications, 1984, where M_n(L) is the set of all n × n matrices over an incline L.     

Subspaces of matrices with special rank properties

Let K be a field and let M_m×n(K) denote the space of m×n matrices over K. We investigate properties of a subspace M of M_m×n(K) of dimension n(m-r+1) in which each non-zero element of M has rank at least r and enumerate the number of elements of a given rank in M when K is finite. We also provide an upper bound for the dimension of a constant rank r subspace of M_m×n(K) when K is finite and give non-trivial examples to show that our bound is optimal in some cases. We include a similar a bound for the maximum dimension of a constant rank subspace of skew-symmetric matrices over a finite field.     

Fixed zeros in the model matching problem for systems over semirings

This paper studies “fixed zeros” of solutions to the model matching problem for systems over semirings. Such systems have been used to model queueing systems, communication networks, and manufacturing systems. The main contribution of this paper is the discovery of two fixed zero structures, which possess a connection with the extended zero semimodules of solutions to the model matching problem. Intuitively, the fixed zeros provides an essential component that is obtained from the solutions to the model matching problem. For discrete event dynamic systems modeled in max-plus algebra, a common Petri net component constructed from the solutions to the model matching problem can be discovered from the fixed zero structure.